Mumbai, 05 October (H.S.): The three-day bi-monthly Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) began on Monday. Economic experts have indicated the possibility of an increase of up to 0.25 per cent in the policy repo rate this time.

The review meeting, chaired by RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra, is being held in Mumbai from October 5 to 7. Following the meeting, Sanjay Malhotra will announce the MPC's monetary policy decision at 10 a.m. on October 7. The meeting will review inflation, economic activity and the prevailing position on policy interest rates, particularly the repo rate. Amid rising crude oil prices in international markets and inflationary risks, indications point to the possibility of a policy rate hike this time.

Economists and banking officials believe that the RBI could raise the repo rate by 0.25 per cent at its October monetary policy review amid inflationary pressures arising from a renewed escalation of the crisis in West Asia. Earlier, brokerage firm Nomura had forecast two 25-basis-point hikes in the policy repo rate during the October-December monetary policy review meetings.

At its previous MPC meeting in August, the RBI had kept the repo rate unchanged at 5.25 per cent. After cumulatively cutting the repo rate by 1.25 percentage points in 2025, the central bank had kept the rate unchanged at 5.25 per cent for four consecutive meetings.

However, amid evolving global and domestic economic conditions, there are now strong indications that the policy interest rate could be increased by 25 basis points for the first time since 2023.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar