Asia worries over food futures trading

MADRID, May 6 (UPI) -- India, concerned over the recent jump in commodity prices, may do away with food futures trading.

Indian Finance Minister P. Chidambaram says he is considering such a move because of concerns he and others share about the role of hedge funds and other traders in the futures market, the Financial Times reported.

Futures trading in India began only five years ago as part of an effort to enhance the country's role as a leading financial center.

However, Chidambaram, speaking in Madrid on the sidelines of the Asian Development Bank annual meeting, said his country is "facing a very grave crisis on the food front," and that his concerns about market speculation are shared by other governments in the region, the Times reported.

The reference was to the price jumps in staples and the inflation they have triggered in Asia. The report said inflation has become serious enough to impact economic growth in nations like Vietnam and China.

To stem a repeat of the 1997 Asian financial crisis, Asian finance ministers in Madrid agreed to convert $80 billion of current bilateral currency swaps into a multilateral facility for emergency lending among 13 Asian nations.