OMO sales will be done through auction process: RBI Governor

RBI MPC Meeting

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Shaktikanta Das on October 6 said open market operations (OMO) will be done through the auction process. "OMO sales will be done through auction process," Das said while addressing the press conference post Monetary Policy Meeting.

Earlier today, on October 6, Das had announced the central bank may consider open market operations (OMO) sales to manage liquidity.

"We may have to consider OMO sales to manage liquidity on consistent with stance of monetary policy," Das said.

OMO is a term which refers to the purchase or sale of government securities in the open market by the Central bank.

Further, Das added that the timing and quantum of such operation will depend upon evolving liquidity conditions.

The Reserve Bank of India's (RBI’s) monetary policy committee (MPC), as expected, left the key lending repo rate unchanged at 6.5 percent for the fourth consecutive time, as the focus remained on bringing inflation down.

Announcing the decision, Governor Shaktikanta Das said the RBI also maintained its policy stance of "withdrawal of accommodation" to ensure inflation progressively aligned with the MPC's target while remaining supportive of economic growth.
The status quo means interest rates for retail as well as corporate borrowers will remain stable. The central bank started hiking the policy rate in May 2022 in tranches in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine war and took it to 6.5 percent in February this year. Since then, it has kept the rate steady at its bi-monthly monetary policy reviews.