As liquidity tightens, call money rate jumps to 7% before easing

Advance tax, GST payments leading to tight liquidity; RBI may do more repos

The interbank call money rate, which represents the overnight cost of funds for banks, rose to a high of 7 per cent on Monday as tax outflows exerted significant pressure on liquidity in the banking system.

The rate eased after touching that mark, with the weighted average call rate (WACR) — the operating target of the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) monetary policy — ending at 6.69 per cent on Monday, Clearing Corporation of India data showed.

At Monday’s closing level, the WACR was much above the repo rate of 6.5 per cent and not far from the marginal standing