RBI to buy Rs 25,000 crore of bonds in two instalments via OMO in May

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) plans to buy Rs 25,000 crore worth of bonds in two installments from the secondary market in May, it has notified.

The first such open market operations (OMO) for the fiscal year 2019-20, amounting to Rs 12,500 crore, will happen on May 2. The date for the second auction has not been given.

This would be on top of the dollar swaps that the central bank is undertaking. The system liquidity was short of Rs 1.4 trillion as on Monday. This is despite the central bank buying bonds worth Rs 3 trillion in the last fiscal year and infusing another about Rs 70,000 crore through two dollar swaps.

The OMO plan is in continuation with the central bank’s practice in the last financial year. The RBI had spelt out how much of bonds it would purchase from the market through monthly calendars. In the OMO, the central bank would be buying bonds maturing between 2020 and 2032, it said in its notification.