RBI announces further OMO purchase of Rs 50,000 crore in Jan 2019

RBI announces further OMO purchase of Rs 50,000 crore in Jan 2019

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Tuesday announced further purchases of government securities (G-secs) under open market operations (OMOs) for a total amount of Rs 50,000 crore in January 2019. The operations will be conducted through five auctions of Rs 10,000 crore each.

RBI also decided to scale up the amounts to be purchased in the remaining two OMO auctions scheduled in December 2018 to `15,000 crore each after evaluating current liquidity conditions. The central bank, in a press release, said the liquidity conditions will continue to be monitored and depending on the assessment, it will consider similar quantum of OMO purchases until the end of March 2019. The exact calibration of the quantum of OMO would depend on sustained changes in the behaviour of currency in circulation, the magnitude of sterilisation operations for RBI’s forex operations and other relevant factors.

The RBI undertook OMO purchases worth Rs 10,000 crore during the week ended December 14.

The central bank has undertaken OMO purchases to the tune of `1.26 lakh crore during the previous four months. Of the total OMO purchase during the year, `660 crore were not via auctions. There has been no OMO sales in the current fiscal.