RBI Monetary Policy Committee Meeting, Repo Rate Cut Live Updates: The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) has kept the repo rate unchanged at 5.5 per cent unanimously, RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra announced on Wednesday. The announcement comes after a three-day meeting of the RBI MPC concluded today. The decision is in line with broader expectations.
The RBI MPC also kept its stance unchanged at ‘neutral’, unanimously. The RBI has retained its FY26 GDP forecast of 6.5%. The central bank has revised downwards its FY26 CPI inflation projection. The RBI also kept unchanged the SDF at 5.25 per cent, and MSF and Bank Rates at 5.75 per cent. The SDF is the lower band of the interest rate corridor, while the MSF is the upper band.
Addressing post-policy press conference, RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra said the RBI does not see any big impact on inflation from Trump tariffs.
“We don’t see a major impact of US tariff (on economy) unless you have retaliatory tariff,” said the RBI governor, reports news agency PTI.
The RBI’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), led by Governor Sanjay Malhotra, began its three-day deliberation on Monday, August 4. It concludes today, August 6.
The six-member MPC includes Governor Sanjay Malhotra, Deputy Governor Poonam Gupta, Executive Director Rajiv Ranjan, and three external members: Nagesh Kumar, Saugata Bhattacharya, and Ram Singh.
This is Governor Malhotra’s fourth rate announcement since taking over from Shaktikanta Das. The MPC, which cut rates in both February, April and June 2025, has already brought the repo rate down to 5.5 per cent and shifted its stance to from ‘accommodative’ to ‘neutral’. Banks have responded by lowering their external benchmark-linked lending rates (EBLRs) and marginal cost of funds-based lending rates (MCLR).
In the previous policy review in June 2025, the RBI MPC had announced a surprise 50 basis points repo rate cut, bringing the key policy rate down to 5.5%, and a 100-bps CRR reduction as the RBI signalled confidence in the easing of price pressures amid a supportive global and domestic backdrop. The RBI has cut the repo rate by 100 bps in three consecutive rate cuts.
India’s retail inflation, based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI), declined to 2.1 per cent in June 2025, the latest available data. It is the lowest inflation print after January 2019. The CPI-based inflation had stood at 2.82 per cent in May 2025 and 5.08 per cent in June 2024.
The RBI is mandated to keep inflation at 4%, with a tolerance band of (-/+) 2%.
In June 2025 policy, the RBI revised its retail inflation projection for FY26 to 3.7%, down from its earlier estimate of 4%. This marks the lowest average retail inflation forecast by the central bank in recent years.