Get ready for a 0.35% repo rate hike as RBI Panel Meeting Begins Today

Even Americans know about the impending 0.35% Repo Rate hike likely to be announced by the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in two days' time. Between Aug 3 and 5, the MPC is going to meet again and BofA Securities, an American multinational investment banking division under Bank of America, has published a report indicating that the meeting might end up in a hike announcement. That may also be accompanied by "calibrated tightening" of the Central Bank's policy stance. In May and June this year, the

RBI has already implemented a cumulative 0.90% hike in the key repo rate, in order to meet the market requirements arising out of inflation. Now, the BofA report says, "In our base case, we now see the RBI MPC hike policy repo rate by 0.35%, taking it to 5.25%, which is higher than the pre-pandemic rate. The stance has changed to calibrated tightening from the withdrawal of accommodation earlier." Just last week,

RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das informed the nation that headline inflation had come to rest at 7.04% for April and it appears to have reached its peak now. Therefore, it won't be surprising if the MPC adopts an aggressive approach to market conditions and deliver another rate hike, as was done during June. Most Indian economists have already said that they expect RBI to raise the repo rate by 35-50 basis points (bps) after the MPC meeting, scheduled from August 3-5. The "calibrated tightening" as indicated so far is RBI's way to accomplish its policy goals faster, which is also reflected in the shorter rate-hiking cycle, as reflected already.