RBI MPC Meet Begins Amid Rate Cut Prospects

Mumbai: Days after the Union Budget, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday started deliberations on the monetary policy amid expectations of a 25 basis-points rate cut, which will be the first in five years, as inflation remains within central bank’s comfort zone, though the sliding rupee continues to be a concern.

The Reserve Bank had last reduced the repo rate by 40 basis points to four per cent in May 2020 to help the economy tide over the crisis following the outbreak of the Covid pandemic and subsequent lockdown. But in May 2022 the central bank started a rate hike cycle in view of the Russia-Ukraine war and paused it only in May 2023.