Reserve Bank of India seen cutting rates next week, first time in 9 months
India's central bank is expected to reward the government next week for its efforts to reform the economy and bring its finances under control by announcing its first cut in interest rates in nine months.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has been growing in confidence that the government, gripped by inertia for much of last year, is finally doing its bit to lift an economy that has slumped to its slowest pace of growth in a decade.
"The government has gone ahead with all the promises it had made 3 to 4 months earlier. There have been pretty substantial measures on the fiscal deficit front," said Samiran Chakrabarty, head of research at Standard Chartered Bank in Mumbai.
"To an extent, that will be comforting for the RBI."
Inflation is also heading in the right direction as far as the central bank is concerned. Wholesale price inflation, the main price gauge, fell to a three-year low of just over 7 percent in December.
Since mid December, yields on 10-year Indian government bonds have pulled back to 7.865 percent from above 8 percent in anticipation of a rate cut.
The slide marked the first time the yield had dropped below 8 percent since early 2011.
However, the central bank remains cautious with inflation around 7 percent. Last week, Governor Duvvuri Subbarao said inflation remained too high, a comment that dashed financial market expectations for a more aggressive rate cut of 50 basis points.
Most economists expect the RBI to cut its policy repo rate by
Be the first to comment.
