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Here’s How Low India Rates Can Go After Five Cuts in a Row

The Reserve Bank of India Friday slashed the full-year growth forecast to 6.1% -- which would be a seven-year low. 

Here’s How Low India Rates Can Go After Five Cuts in a Row
Shaktikanta Das, governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), reacts during a news conference in Mumbai, India. (Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- How much lower can India’s central bank drive interest rates after delivering five back-to-back cuts? By as much as 65 basis points, say some economists.

The Monetary Policy Committee can possibly cut rates by another 40-65 basis points, which will take the benchmark repurchase rate below the 4.75% level seen during the global financial crisis, according to economists, including Anand Rathi Financial Services Ltd.s’ Sujan Hajra. So entrenched is India’s growth slowdown that it may require the rate to be cut to as low as 4.5% for any meaningful impact.

“We now expect that rather than 5%, the repo rate in this cycle would bottom out at 4.5%,” said Hajra, chief economist at Anand Rathi and an ex-central banker himself.

Here’s How Low India Rates Can Go After Five Cuts in a Row

The Reserve Bank of India Friday slashed the full-year growth forecast to 6.1% -- which would be a seven-year low -- from 6.9% previously. Governor Shaktikanta Das, echoing Mario Draghi, vowed to keep the policy stance dovish for “as long as it is necessary to revive growth.”

Das was less forthcoming on how low rates can drop, after having cut rates by a cumulative 135 basis points so far this year.

“On a potential policy rate lower bound we have not said anything,” he told reporters on Friday. “This is a kind of forward guidance that as long as growth momentum remains as it is and till growth is revived, the RBI will remain in an accommodative mode.”

Rahul Bajoria, senior India economist with Barclays Bank Plc, said Das’s guidance was “unambiguously dovish.” He expects the RBI to reduce the repo rate by another 25 basis points in December and by a further 15 basis points in February. That will “bring the terminal rate to 4.75%.”

At 4.75%, India will still offer positive rates of return to investors seeking high yields, with inflation at 3.2% and well below the RBI’s medium-term target of 4%.

To contact the reporter on this story: Anirban Nag in Mumbai at anag8@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nasreen Seria at nseria@bloomberg.net, Karthikeyan Sundaram, Ravil Shirodkar

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

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