he Reserve Bank of India is expected to keep interest rates steady well into next year after it shifted to a neutral monetary policy stance in February, and despite having raised concerns over a potential spike in inflation, a Reuters poll found.
Earlier this month, the central bank raised a secondary rate while holding the key repo rate steady to mop up excess liquidity from the government's demonetisation drive, making it the fourth meeting in a row it has surprised markets.
The median consensus in the poll of more than 35 economists, conducted between April 10-19, was for the policy repo rate to remain at 6.25 per cent until the fourth quarter of 2018 at least, and the reverse repo rate at 6 per cent.
“Inflation continues to be the biggest factor worrying the central bank. Given this, an easy monetary policy stance is ruled out for now,” wrote Dharmakirti Joshi, Principal Economist at Crisil.
