New Delhi, Nov 13
Economists on Thursday anticipated at least one more repo rate cut by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its upcoming monetary policy committee (MPC) review in December, as inflation based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) eased to 0.3 per cent on-year in October from 1.4 per cent in September, marking its lowest reading in the 2011-12 base series.
The slide was driven by continued deflation in the food and beverages category as well as some dampening in core inflation.
“Given the sharper-than-expected fall in food inflation, expectations of healthy food supplies for the rest of the fiscal, benign global crude prices and the GST rate cut benefits on mass consumption items, we expect CPI inflation to average 2.5 per cent this fiscal, significantly lower than last fiscal’s 4.6 per cent,” said Crisil in its note.