Repo rates may take another 0.25 percent hike


Mumbai: Many economists believe that Reserve Bank of India RBI may raise its policy rates by another 25 bps in its monetary policy announcement coming up in April. Economists also say that even though RBI Governor, D. Subbarao have refrained himself from raising policy rates during the first half of his term of three years till now, he might have to raise it in 2010. Recently, RBI had hiked repo rates 25 bps. Not only repo rates, economists feel that the cash reserve ratio (CRR) should also be increased by another 25 basis points in the monetary policy. Earlier this year, the RBI has already raised the CRR by as much as 75 basis points. This was done as a step to suck out excess liquidity worth 36,000 crore from the financial system. But there are some experts who do not feel so. Deepali Bhargava, India Economist at ING Vysya Bank said, "After accounting for a front-loaded calendar, we expect liquidity to be just about comfortable and not excessive. Hence, we do not look for a CRR hike in the April policy."