India call money rate rises to 5.55% in week to October 16, above new repo rate

Overnight borrowing costs have risen since the October 7 rate hike

On October 7 the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) raised its repo rate to 5.50%. The repo rate is the rate at which the RBI lends to banks. The call money rate is the rate banks charge each other for overnight loans. Its weekly average rose to 5.55% in the week to October 16. It was 5.23% the week before and 5.13% in the week to October 2. The highest call rate in the week reached 6.05%, up from 5.55%.

Banks appear to be short of cash and are borrowing from the RBI

Early in October the RBI was draining surplus cash from banks. It did this with bond sales and stricter daily cash reserve rules. On October 23 it held its first 3-day variable rate repo auction since July 27. In this auction the RBI lends cash to banks for three days. Banks bid for about 2.1 times the amount the RBI allotted. This suggests that the drain, along with the RBI's defence of the rupee, has left banks short of cash.

Bank credit and deposits rose in the second half of September

These figures cover the fortnight to September 30.

• Credit: total bank credit was ₹229,948.5bn, up 3.0% from ₹223,292.6bn on September 15. Part of the rise is the usual end-of-quarter increase. Credit was about 20.6% above the ₹190,722.6bn reported for September 26, 2025.
• Deposits: total deposits were ₹283,950.8bn, up from ₹276,230.7bn. That is about 19.4% above the ₹237,811.7bn of a year earlier.
• Credit-deposit ratio: this ratio shows how much of their deposits banks have lent out. It was about 81%.

The rupee held steady against the dollar in September

The rupee averaged 95.46 per dollar in September, almost unchanged from 95.47 in August. It was 95.82 in July. Against the Chinese yuan the rupee weakened slightly, to 14.23 from 14.17.