The Reserve Bank of India has maintained status quo on its benchmark repo rate, even as India’s inflation rate remains below its tolerance band.
Governor Sanjay Malhotra said during his televised speech on Friday that the six-member Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the RBI, which met on February 4-6, unanimously voted to keep the repo rate at 5.25%. The policy stance was kept neutral.
Most of the 39 economists surveyed by Bloomberg had expected the central bank to keep its benchmark repurchase rate unchanged at 5.25% on Friday. With India’s GDP growth rate above 7% for the second consecutive year in FY27 and the rupee recording its biggest rally in seven years, some economists expect the rate cut cycle may also be over.
RBI MPC decisions today
Here is a look at the key decisions taken by India’s Monetary Policy Committee at its February 4-6 meeting:
- RBI has maintained the benchmark repurchase rate at 5.25%.
- RBI will continue to maintain its neutral monetary policy stance going forward.
- India’s GDP growth rate in the first quarter of FY27 stood at 6.9%, which was earlier 6.7%.
- India’s inflation rate was seen at 3.9% in Q1 FY27, up from 4.0% earlier.
- New CPI, GDP series for the Indian economy are due in late February.
The RBI has now cut rates by a total of 125 basis points from February 2025, the most aggressive easing since 2019. It had cut rates by 25 basis points in its last meeting in December.
One basis point is one hundredth of one percentage point.