December Retail Inflation Cools to Four-Month Low

December retail inflation cooled to an four-month low, as food inflation dropped to a three-month low and core inflation remained subdued.

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ALSO, BRENT CRUDE price crossed the $81-per-barrel mark on Monday due to expectations that expanded US sanctions on Russian oil producers would disrupt crude supplies to major importers, such as India and China.

"It does look like that there could be a status quo on repo rate under these conditions (unless things change drastically on the forex front, which is unlikely)," Sabnavis added.

Analysts have been calling for a rate cut in the February meeting of the central bank's monetary policy committee (MPC) as growth this year has been much lower than expected. In Q2FY24, GDP growth came in at a seven-quarter low of 5.4%.