India central bank minutes show room for rate cuts as inflation outlook softens

By Swati Bhat

MUMBAI (Reuters) -India’s interest-rate panel members have flagged room for future rate cuts as the country’s inflation outlook turns more benign, minutes of the October meeting showed on Wednesday.

The six-member monetary policy committee held the key repo rate steady at 5.50% earlier this month, after cutting rates by 100 basis points in 2025. It retained the “neutral” policy stance, though two members favoured a shift to “accommodative”.

“The benign outlook for headline and core inflation as a result of the downward revision of projections opens up policy space to further support growth,” RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra wrote in the minutes.

While the intent is to continue to facilitate growth-enabling conditions, policy uncertainty, rapidly evolving developments and the