India, April 8 -- RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra is expected to announce a 25-basis-point repo rate cut on Wednesday, April 9, according to experts and brokerages.

The potential rate cut is to counter economic strain from the 26 per cent tariff on Indian imports by the US, which is expected to reduce India's GDP growth this year by 20-40 basis points, Bajaj Broking Research said.

The tariffs could potentially lower the GDP growth to around 6.1 per cent from the RBI's earlier forecast of 6.7 per cent, pushing the central bank toward further rate cuts, the brokerage added.

This comes as the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is having its first bi-monthly meeting for this financial year from April 7 to 9. It...