MUMBAI, Feb. 18 -- The Reserve Bank of India may have delivered a cumulative 125-basis-point cut in the repo rate since February 2025, but financial conditions have failed to ease in ways typically associated with monetary loosening. With the rate-cut cycle now widely expected to pause, the central bank is likely to rely increasingly on liquidity measures to ease conditions instead, economists said.

In a report dated 11 February, Barclays said financial conditions have actually tightened in recent months, driven largely by government and corporate bond markets. Over the one-year period since the start of the easing cycle, policy rate cuts were accompanied by durable liquidity infusion via open market operation purchases and foreign excha...