Monday, October 18, 2021

Monetary Policy Review : October 2021

Monetary Policy Review : October 2021

The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) today unanimously voted to keep the policy Repo Rate unchanged at 4.0% respectively.  It also voted in favor to continue with accommodative stance (with 5 to 1 majority, same as last meeting) as long as necessary to revive and sustain growth on a durable basis  and continue to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on the economy, while ensuring that inflation remains within the target going forward.  

In addition to above, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced following liquidity and regulatory measures: 
  • Announced  calibrated  increase  in  quantum  of  VRRR  auctions  to  INR  6  lakh  crore  (from  INR  4  lakh crore) in four tranches of INR 50,000 crore each over next 2 months. Governor also mentioned that RBI may consider complementing this with 28-day VRRR auctions in a similar calibrated manner.  
  • Extended  the  On  Tap  Special  Long-Term  Repo  Operations  for  Small  Finance  Banks  of  INR  10,000 crore till 31 December 2021.  
  • Extended the enhanced aggregate Ways and Means Advances limit for States / Union Territories of INR 51,560 crores by another 6 months till 31 March 2022. 
On Economic Growth: The economic recovery is progressing well supported by receding cases, easing restrictions  and  improvement  in  pace  of  vaccination.  The revival  has  been  broad  based  with  improvement  in  PMIs, steady  growth  in  industrial  production,  forecast  of  strong food  grain  production,  robust  non-oil  non-gold  exports. 
Further, high frequency indicators like cement production, railway  freight  traffic,  e-way  bills,  power  generation,  etc.  also points at fast pace normalization. However, select segments like contact intensive services, aviation etc. continue to remain  under pressure. While Q1FY22 GDP growth  came in slightly lower  than estimated,  RBI  has  retained  the  full  year  growth  forecast  and  has  revised  up  its  growth  estimate  for Q2FY22 and Q3FY22. However, RBI continues to emphasis the need to nurture the recovery given the relatively  low  capacity  utilization,  uncertain  external  sector,  high  commodity  prices  and  impact  of monetary policy normalization in advanced economies.

On  Inflation:  The  average  inflation  for  July  and  August  2021  has  been  considerably  lower  than  RBI’s  forecast.  This  was  mainly  driven  by  soft  momentum  in  vegetable  prices  and favourable base effect. However, fuel prices inched up further on back of rise in international crude prices and core inflation (CPI ex food & fuel) continues to remain sticky and at elevated level. 

In view of lower food inflation,  expectation of record food grain production, supply side measures by government on edible oil and pulses,  lower pass through  of  high  input  prices,  etc.  RBI  has  revised  down  its  CPI  forecast  by  80  bps  for  Q2FY22  and Q2FY23. Consequently, the full year target has been revised down by 40 bps.

Conclusion and Outlook 
The  status  quo  of  monetary  policy  and  increase  in  VRRR  quantum  was  largely  in  line  with  consensus expectations and there was no major surprise in the policy. However, no new G-SAP announcement for 
Q3FY22  was  perceived  a  little  negative  by  the  market  and  yields  at  the  longer  end  inched  up  slightly.  However,  Governor  in  his  statement  stressed  that  RBI  retains  the  flexibility  of  conducting  G-SAP  and  using  other  liquidity  tools  including  operation  TWIST  and  OMOs  as  and  when  deemed  necessary. 

Governor  reemphasized  that  increase  in  quantum  of  VRRR  should  not  be  perceived  as  reversal  from accommodative stance. RBI expects that the inter bank liquidity (excluding the VRRR) is likely to remain in the range of INR 2 to 3 lakh crore by early December 2021 i.e. ~2% of NDTL from ~4.5% currently.  

Going forward, the fixed income market can face some headwinds as factors like elevated crude prices, resilient  retail  inflation,  increase  in  inflation  expectations,  high  SLR  holding  of  banks,  good  recovery 
momentum,  etc.  may  adversely  impact  the  yields.  Further,  hawkish  commentary  by  US  FOMC,  rise  in international commodity prices, etc. can put upward pressure on Gsec yield too.  

However, despite the fixed income environment being not so favourable over the past few months, the rise  in  yields  has  been  rather  modest  till  now,  primarily  driven  by  continued  RBI  intervention  through 
deployment  of  conventional  and  unconventional  tools.  Over  the  past  one  and  half  year,  RBI  has extensively  used  policy  tools  like  LTROs,  TLTROs,  operation  TWIST,  G-SAP, etc. to achieve “orderly 
evolution” of yield curve. Further, the buoyant revenue collections have reduced the risk of fiscal slippage. Also, borrowing for compensation cess has been subsumed within the Government borrowing program and there is likely to be no increase from budgeted borrowing program.  

In view of the above, we expect yields to trade within a range with an upward bias. However, given the increase  in  VRRR  quantum  and  possibility  of  reverse  repo  rate  hike  in  coming  months,  we  expect  the yields at shorter end to rise faster. In view of the aforesaid and relatively steep yield curve, we continue to recommend investments into short to medium duration debt funds, possibly, in a staggered manner 
in line with individual risk appetite.

Sources: Various publications

Disclaimer: The information provided herein is based on publicly available information and other sources believed to be reliable, but involve uncertainties that could cause actual events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such statements. The document is given for general and information purpose and is neither an investment advice nor an offer to sell nor a solicitation. While due care has been exercised while preparing this document, we do not warrant the completeness or accuracy of the information. We will not accept any liability arising from the use of this material. The recipient of this material should rely on their investigations and take their own professional advice.

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