Australia and India raised interest rates on Tuesday, highlighting the contrast between the Asia-Pacific region's rapid growth and the fragile recovery in other parts of the world. Central banks in the United States, Europe and Japan are still propping up their economies with very low interest rates. In fact, the Federal Reserve is expected to announce additional pump-priming measures Wednesday. But many of their counterparts in developing Asia and in fast-growing Australia have been gradually nudging up the cost of borrowing this year. Few economists had expected Australia to raise its main cash rate to 4.75 percent. It was the latest in a series of increases, which began in October 2009 and now totals 1.75 percentage points. On Tuesday India added another quarter of a percentage point to the repurchase rate for short-term lending, making it 6.25 percent, and to the reverse repurchase rate for short-term borrowing, which is now at 5.25 percent. The Reserve Bank of India cited rising inflation pressures, which have become the major concern for policymakers throughout the region, as the reason for the latest rate increase. Unencumbered by the debt levels that are still haunting their counterparts in the West, most Asian economies are set to enjoy robust growth this year. Increasing trade within Asia, including with China, also has helped offset the declining consumer demand in the United States. China, Taiwan, South Korea and Malaysia have started to increase borrowing costs. The cumulative moves by Australia and India, however, have been among the most aggressive to date. Australia has benefited in particular from China's enormous appetite for its natural resources, which shows few signs of abating. 'Most commodity prices have firmed, after a fall earlier in the year,' Glenn Stevens, the governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, said in a statement after the rate decision on Tuesday. 'The prices most important to Australia remain at very high levels, with the result that the terms of trade are at their highest since the early 1950s.' India, meanwhile, has powered ahead thanks to the steadily increasing wealth of its huge population, while its economy has been less reliant on overseas trade. In Australia, inflation has remained fairly muted in recent months but still represents a worry for the future. 'The moderation in inflation that has been under way for the past two years is probably now close to ending,' Stevens said. 