IMD keeps average monsoon forecast despite strong start

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The monsoon is still expected to deliver average rains this year, the weather office said on Friday, even though heavy rains and fast progress in the first two weeks have boosted prospects of robust farm output in one of the world's top food producers.

The weather office had forecast an average monsoon in April, before the crucial rainy season started, in the absence of the El Nino weather pattern in the Pacific Ocean which causes droughts in South Asia.

Monsoon rains should cover the whole of India before mid-July, said B.P. Yadav, a director at the India Meteorological Department.

(Reporting by Ratnajyoti Dutta; editing by Mayank Bhardwaj)