By Suvashree Dey Choudhury and Tony Munroe MUMBAI (Reuters) - India's central bank cut its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points on Friday for the third time since January, as expected, as growth slows and inflation ebbs, but said there is little room to ease monetary policy further, disappointing markets. The Reserve Bank of India trimmed the repo rate to 7.25 percent, its lowest since May 2011, and kept the cash reserve ratio (CRR) for banks unchanged at 4 percent, also in line with expectations.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Subdued factory and investment growth probably capped China's inflation in April and depressed producer prices for a 14th consecutive month, a Reuters poll showed, clouding the outlook for the Chinese economy. And risks that China's factory and investment growth in April may miss even conservative forecasts are mounting after surveys of the country's manufacturing and services industries cooled unexpectedly last month.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Tuesday that the government will carefully examine at meetings of its key economic panel whether the Bank of Japan's drastic monetary easing has begun to improve people's livelihoods. Abe made the remarks amid growing concern that the central bank's easing could merely drive up consumer prices without wage growth, as the BOJ has pledged to achieve a 2 percent inflation target within two years though the country has long been mired in deflation.

By Alister Bull RICHMOND, Virginia (Reuters) - Stronger U.S. job creation in April reinforces the argument to scale back Federal Reserve bond purchases, one of the central bank's most hawkish policy-makers said on Friday, after better than expected data eased concern the U.S. economy had stumbled. "I don't think there is any question...that we've seen substantial improvement in the labor market outlook over the last 6 months," said Jeffrey Lacker, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.