The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Monday did a four-day variable rate reverse repo (VRRR) auction to reduce liquidity in the banking system as the overnight money market rates fell below the repo rate, said market participants. The repo rate is 6.50 per cent. Banks parked Rs 18,750 crore at the auction against a notified amount of Rs 50,000 crore at a weighted average rate of 6.49 per cent.
'Previously, contributing only 25 per cent of material costs, states now face burdens of 40 per cent to 100 per cent of total costs, ensuring poorer states will curb project approvals, directly stifling work demand.'
Retail inflation slipped to 1.54 per cent in September from 2.07 per cent in the preceding month mainly due to subdued prices of food items, including vegetables and pulses, according to government data released on Monday. The consumer price index (CPI) based inflation was 5.49 per cent in September 2024.
Inflation in India is going to be a persistent problem.
Banks have been borrowing heavily from the Tri-Party Repo (TREPS) market and deploying those funds into the Standing Deposit Facility (SDF) of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which is offering higher interest rate than the former, leading to increased volumes in the SDF window. The weighted average TREPS rate was trading at 5.66 per cent on Monday, 9 basis points lower than the SDF rate which currently stands at 5.75 per cent.
Top losers in the Sensex pack included IndusInd Bank, Yes Bank, SBI, L&T, Tata Steel, M&M, Bajaj Finance, Vedanta, Tata Motors and RIL, tumbling up to 6.97 per cent.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Wednesday lowered India's growth forecast for FY26 to 6.5 per cent from 6.7 per cent on account of trade uncertainty and higher US tariffs that are expected to impact exports and investment. Despite the downward revision from the April 2025 Asian Development Outlook (ADO), India remains one of the fastest-growing major economies in the world.
RBI policy surely cannot impact agflation, in any case.
Finance Minister expects rate cut by RBI.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday announced to increase the policy repo rate by 50 basis points to 4.9 per cent, the second hike in five weeks aimed at quelling the inflation. The MPC vote was unanimous and has decided to keep stance withdrawal from accommodative, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said in a press conference on Wednesday. The decision was taken during a three-day meeting of the RBI's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) to review the interest rates in the country. The MPC voted unanimously to increase the policy repo rate by 50 bps to 4.90 per cent," Das said.
The Reserve Bank is in touch with various banks to understand why lending rates are not coming down despite the central bank cutting policy rates, even as the bankers expressed inability to lower the rates when bond yields remain high.
RBI has cut the rates thrice so far in 2015 by 25 bps each.
RBI said inflation in the second half of the current fiscal is projected at 2.7-3.2%. It retained its GDP forecast for the current fiscal at 7.4%
RBI recently cut repo by 0.25 percentage point, taking the rate to 7.25 per cent in three reductions since January.
With the 115 bps reduction in repo rate beginning February, banks have already transmitted 72 bps to the customers on fresh loans and some large banks have transmitted as much as 85 basis points.
Overall forex market sentiment remained cautious
From the 30 Sensex firms, NTPC, Nestle, Titan, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Maruti, Hindustan Unilever, Bharti Airtel and HDFC Bank were the biggest gainers. HCL Technologies, Tata Consultancy Services, Adani Ports, Larsen & Toubro, JSW Steel, State Bank of India, Tech Mahindra and Bajaj Finance were among the laggards from the pack.
The risk-reward for the Indian markets, Morgan Stanley said, is turning favourable.
Battling a sharp surge in inflation, the Reserve Bank is all for a smooth monetary policy response and the desire to have smaller hikes led it to tighten the policy in an off-schedule meet, a source said on Thursday. Inflation has been massively impacted by Russia's invasion of Ukraine and will in due course also reflect the dent caused by Indonesia banning palm oil exports, the source aware of central bank thinking said, indicating that there was no other option but to respond. "The idea is to have a smooth policy response, not to put in large cold turkey responses," the source said, making it clear that the preference is for smaller magnitude responses and not larger ones.
Sanjay Malhotra on Wednesday took charge as the 26th Governor of the Reserve Bank of India. Malhotra, a career bureaucrat, arrived at the central bank's headquarter this morning, where he was welcomed by senior RBI staffers. The central bank confirmed Malhotra's appointment through a post on the microblogging site "X" and also shared a few pictures.
Amid fears of a third wave of coronavirus pandemic and hardening of retail inflation, the Reserve Bank is likely to maintain status quo on interest rate and watch the developing macroeconomic situation for some more time before taking any decisive action on monetary policy. The RBI is scheduled to announce its bi-monthly monetary policy review on August 6 at the end of the three-day meeting -- August 4-6 -- of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC). The RBI Governor-headed six-member MPC decides on the key policy rates.
Indian corporate are increasingly shifting away from bank funding towards alternative sources, such as equity and bond markets, as their deleveraged balance sheets have improved their ability to raise equity at better valuations. Moreover, the 100 basis points (bps) rate cut by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has enabled them to access long-term funds from the debt capital market at cheaper rates.
Emphasising that revival of growth should be the number one priority of the RBI at this time, industry groups said apprehensions about inflation rearing its head again may prove to be misplaced.
The RBI had lowered policy rates by 0.50 per cent between January-March to prop up economic growth.
Tomorrow's review could also turn out be the last policy anchored by Rajan if the proposed Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is put in place before the next review due on August 9.
State Bank of India, Tech Mahindra, Larsen & Toubro, Tata Steel, Sun Pharma, Infosys, HCL Tech, Axis Bank, Tata Consultancy Services and NTPC were among the biggest laggards among Sensex shares. Nestle, Hindustan Unilever, Titan, Power Grid, UltraTech Cement and ITC were among the gainers.
Wholesale price inflation eased to 2.05 per cent in March, as against 2.38 per cent in February, government data showed on Tuesday. The wholesale price index (WPI) based inflation, however, rose year-on-year.
The industry urged the central bank to consider a rate even before the next monetary policy review on July 30.
The methodology will be announced later this week.
RBI retained the GDP growth for the financial year 2018-19 at 7.4 per cent.
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Sanjay Malhotra, with Deputy Governors Poonam Gupta, Swaminathan J, T Rabi Sankar, and M Rajeshwar Rao, responded to a range of queries in the post-policy interaction with the media
Inflation measured by the Wholesale Price Index had declined to 6.62 per cent in January. It was 7.18 per cent in December and 7.24 per cent in November.
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RBI on Wednesday surprised the markets by leaving key policy rates unchanged, notwithstanding persistent high inflationary pressure.
RBI is committed to bringing down retail inflation to eight per cent by January 2015 and six per cent by January 2016.
The Sensex ended down 134 points at 28,559 and the Nifty ended 35 points lower at 8,554
The country's largest home loan player, Housing Development Finance Corporation, said on Thursday it will not hike interest rates even if the central bank signals an upward movement in the monetary policy on July 27.
RBI also retained its GDP growth forecast at 7.6 per cent
Wholesale price inflation (WPI) declined to (-) 0.13 per cent in June as prices of food articles and fuel saw deflation, along with easing in manufactured product costs, government data showed on Monday. WPI-based inflation was 0.39 per cent in May. It was 3.43 per cent in June last year.
From liquidity, monetary policy operations to financial inclusion, know about RBI monetary policy
Retail inflation eased to a nearly six-year low of 3.16 per cent in April mainly due to subdued prices of vegetables, fruits, pulses, and other protein-rich items, creating enough room for the Reserve Bank to go for another round of rate cut in the June monetary policy review. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) based inflation was 3.34 per cent in March and 4.83 per cent in April 2024. It was 3.15 per cent in July 2019.
