The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has doubled the amount of government securities (G-secs) it will purchase in the next round of open market operations (OMOs) scheduled for February 13 to ₹40,000 crore from ₹20,000 crore earlier.
“On a review of current and evolving liquidity conditions, the aggregate amount of OMO purchase has now been revised to ₹40,000 crore,” the central bank said. Banking system liquidity has remained in deficit since the last eight weeks and currently stands at ₹1.33 lakh crore.
The central bank has reportedly already infused over ₹1 lakh crore through bond purchases and dollar/rupee swaps, and another ₹50,000 crore through a 56-day repo auction.
Last week, RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra had said that the RBI’s aim is to provide as much liquidity as required, on both overnight and durable basis.
“We have taken a number of steps. We introduced, perhaps for the first time, every day overnight repo rate operation. This was primarily to give confidence to everyone that this window is always available,” he said.
“Even for the longer term durable liquidity, we have announced steps of about Rs 1.5 lakh crore. We are always watchful, will be nimble and very proactive in providing whatever liquidity requirements are needed,” he added.
