Monetary policy: RBI likely to return interest rates to pre-pandemic levels

With Federal Reserve officials signaling a pause is out of the question until they see evidence of inflation easing, RBI watchers will be closely monitoring Governor Shaktikanta Das's remarks

India’s central-bank watchers agree that interest rates will be raised to pre-pandemic levels on Friday, yet they are split on the size of the increase aimed at fighting inflation and propping up a weak currency.

Sixteen of 36 economists surveyed by Bloomberg see the Reserve Bank of India’s six-member monetary policy committee lifting the repurchase rate by half-point to 5.40 per cent, a level last seen in August 2019. Fourteen of them predict a 35-basis point hike, five a quarter-point action and one for a 40 basis-point increase -- with any of these moves seen enough to return borrowing