The Reserve Bank of India unexpectedly raised its policy interest rate on Tuesday by 25 basis points (bps) but said that if consumer price inflation eases as projected, it does not foresee further near-term tightening.
Reserve Bank of India on Friday raised short-term lending and borrowing rates.
Inflation breached the upper end of the RBI's comfort level of 4 per cent plus-minus two percentage points.
The repo rate has been left unchanged at 4 per cent, Governor Shaktikanta Das said while announcing the decisions taken by the central bank's MPC.
The Reserve Bank will go for a "dovish pause" at Wednesday's policy review announcement amid developments such as a rise in inflation, government maintaining the inflation target band and a likely impact on growth due to local lockdowns on rising COVID-19 infections, analysts said on Monday. Economists at American brokerage Bofa Securities said price stability, growth and financial stability will become the prime focus areas for the central bank going forward. "The RBI MPC (Monetary Policy Committee) should deliver another dovish pause on Wednesday," it said. The policy announcement, the first for the fiscal, will come days after the government maintained the RBI's target to ensure inflation to be within 2-6 per cent band for five more years.
Among the 30 Sensex firms, Asian Paints, Infosys, JSW Steel, UltraTech Cement, Power Grid, Larsen & Toubro, HCL Technologies and Tata Steel were the biggest laggards. Tata Motors, HDFC Bank, Bharti Airtel, ITC, IndusInd Bank and Axis Bank were the gainers.
'The statistical confidence bands of the fan charts of the forecasts will provide a better sense of the potential variability of outcomes.'
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As many as nine respondents said RBI would hold the repo rate at 8% till March-end, 2015
The cut in the policy rate by RBI will help lower interest rates
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.
The Reserve Bank has kept the key policy rates unchanged in its Mid-Quarter Monetary Policy Review.
A repo rate hike may hurt growth far more than it will help deal with an inflation rate that is already dropping.
The central bank held the cash reserve ratio at 4 per cent.
The RBI's next policy review is set for Sept. 29.
Indian corporates collectively raised over Rs 17,500 crore from the domestic debt capital market through bond issuances on Tuesday. The issuances were led by Bharti Telecom's Rs 10,500 crore fundraise in two tranches, the largest by an Indian company in the domestic market so far in FY26.
RBI cuts GDP growth projection to 6.6 per cent for current financial year, from earlier forecast of 7.2 per cent.
The Indian banking sector could be due for a rise in profitability after several quarters of net interest margin (NIM) compression. The Q2FY26 results suggest NIMs have bottomed out.
With the economy heading for a double-digit inflation due to the spiralling food prices and costlier fuels and manufactured articles, the Reserve Bank is expected to hike its key policy rates next month, say leading economists.
The Reserve Bank's rate-setting panel will start its 3-day deliberations on Wednesday amid expectations of yet another rate hike of 50 basis points to check high inflation, in line with similar actions taken by other major central banks, including the US Fed. Based on the recommendations of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), the RBI had effected 50 basis points increase in repo rate each in June and August after raising the short-term lending rate by 40 basis points in an off-cycle decision in May. The MPC, headed by RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das, is scheduled to meet during September 28-30.
The Reserve Bank of India's (RBI's) state of the economy report observed that any durable alignment of headline retail inflation with the target of 4 per cent could recommence in the second half of FY25 and sustain until numbers closer to the target are seen during the course of FY26, dashing hopes of any reduction in the policy repo rate in the current financial year. The report, authored by RBI staffers, including Deputy Governor in charge of monetary policy Michael Patra, said though headline numbers may fall in July and August due to base effect, it is likely to reverse in September.
Sanjay Malhotra takes charge as the 26th RBI governor at a time when headline retail inflation has shot up to 6.2%.
At least a 25 basis points hike can be expected on the October 5 policy
High frequency indicators, like vehicles sales, air traffic, steel consumption and GST E-way bills, point towards a sequential pickup in momentum of economic activity during the second half of the fiscal 2024-25 and sustain moving forward, RBI Bulletin said on Wednesday. However, a strong dollar, driven by US economic resilience and trade policy pivots, could exacerbate capital outflows from emerging economies, push risk premiums higher, and intensify external vulnerabilities, said an article on 'State of the Economy' published in RBI's February bulletin.
With growth rate falling and with inflation continuing to be flat expects a rate cut
Forecasting that inflation is inching towards zero, ICICI Bank managing director and chief executive officer K V Kamath on Tuesday suggested to the Reserve Bank of India to further cut key policy rates by 100 basis points as part of a calibrated move to usher in a low interest rate regime.
A day after the RBI raised the benchmark lending rate by 35 basis points, Kotak Mahindra Bank Managing Director Uday Kotak on Thursday said the central bank may go for one more rate hike to bring inflation below its upper tolerance level of 6 per cent. Yesterday, the RBI indicated that it wants inflation to be within the band first and then move towards the target of 4 per cent, Kotak said at the CII Global Economic Policy Summit 2022. "My sense is that there could be one more rate hike and that may be the time for thinking about a pivot, but we got to watch very closely the data, and maybe around 6.5 per cent as it looks today, subject to what happens to the world, subject to what happens to oil, subject to what happens to many other things," he said.
Retail inflation crossed the RBI's comfort level and rose to 5.21 per cent in December on increase in prices of food items.
The RBI has, however, left the cash reserve ratio or bank rate, which is the amount of cash that banks have to park with the central bank to maintain prudential norms, unchanged at 6 per cent.
The industry urged the central bank to consider a rate even before the next monetary policy review on July 30.
RBI recently hiked the repo and reverse repo rates by 25 basis points to check the spiraling inflation in the country. Any further rate hike is also expected as the RBI has hinted to do so in order to suck excess liquidity from the market.
Shaktikanta Das will demit the office on Tuesday after completing six years as the 25th Governor of the Reserve Bank of India. Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra will replace him as the 26th Governor. He was appointed as the Governor on December 12, 2018, after the abrupt exit of Urjit Patel.
The repo rate could be reduced by 50 bps in the current year.
he hike in service tax rate from 12.5 per cent to 14 per cent will increase the costs of buying
RBI has cut the rates thrice so far in 2015 by 25 bps each.
Finance Minister expects rate cut by RBI.
Reserve Bank Deputy Governor S S Mundra on Friday said that he expects banks to cut interest rates
They sought further cut in interest rates as well as reforms.
'A possible post-election growth momentum may be lost.'
The highlights of RBI's bi-monthly monetary policy announced by Governor Shaktikanta Das:
Axis Bank was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, surging over 13 per cent, followed by ICICI Bank, IndusInd Bank, Maruti, TCS, Kotak Bank and Reliance Industries. On the other hand, Nestle India, HUL, Tech Mahindra and Sun Pharma ended in the red. NSE Nifty zoomed 273.95 points, or 3.03 per cent, to finish at 9,266.75.
