Start locking into best available FD rates; invest across tenures

By laddering across various tenures, you can ensure a regular flow of funds and maintain liquidity

After six consecutive repo rate hikes, the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) opted for a strategic pause earlier this month, holding the benchmark lending rate firm at 6.5 per cent. Fixed deposit (FD) investors are trying to assess whether interest rates have peaked and if this is a good time to lock into FDs for the long term.

Experts caution that the RBI has only indicated a pause on interest rates, and not a pivot. Vishal Dhawan, board member of the Association of Registered Investment Advisors (ARIA), says, “Depending on incoming data, both domestic and international,