policy quote by Suvodeep Rakshit,
Senior Economist, Kotak Institutional Equities
“The RBI as expected hiked the repo rate
by 25 bps. The split mandate of 4-2 was also as expected. The stance too was
unchanged which is in line with the excess liquidity continuing to be
tightened. We see the RBI remaining concerned about inflation, especially core
inflation. We expect inflation to average around 5.2% in FY2024 with adverse
risks to growth likely to increase. The RBI will likely become increasingly
data-dependent and look at the impact of past rate hikes on
inflation-growth dynamics. We expect the RBI to pause from the next policy
onwards with a likely shift in stance to neutral as the liquidity tightens
further over March-April.”