Inflation may force RBI to hold rates

The Monetary Policy Committee, which will meet this week, is likely to keep repo rates unchanged at 6% on inflation concerns, said a study.

The retail inflation or consumer price index based-inflation accelerated to a seven-month high of 3.58% in October from 3.28% in September.

Rating agency ICRA said although CPI inflation for October was lower than the 4.2-4.6% range for the second half of FY18 that the MPC had forecast, certain risks persisted. “With the CPI inflation likely to track a rising trend over the second half and print at around 4.5% in March 2018, we expect an extended pause amid non-unanimous voting by the MPC in the December policy review,” ICRA MD and CEO Naresh Takkar said.