India is set to welcome billions of dollars of foreign inflows when JPMorgan adds the country’s sovereign debt to its emerging markets index on Friday, a move that some analysts say will leave it more vulnerable to fickle flows of hot money.
The inclusion of India marks the first time the bonds of the world’s fastest growing large economy have been included in a major benchmark and is the latest move to open up a once closed off market. It was only in 2020 that India removed foreign ownership restrictions on some rupee-denominated debt.
The inclusion of 28 government bonds worth more than $400bn will give India a 10 per cent share of the widely-tracked measure, according to JPMorgan.