Sanjay Malhotra

Money Moves

Chaired the MPC meeting that hiked rates

India's central bank raised its benchmark lending rate by a quarter point to 5.5% on October 7, the first increase in nearly four years. September inflation came in at 5.54%, above the RBI's 5.2% forecast for the fiscal year.

Updated Oct 22

Rule Changes

Said individuals are exempt from new FEMA reporting requirements

A month into India's new financial rulebook, the Reserve Bank of India has widened a 20% cash reserve on foreign-exchange derivatives to cover all rupee-linked contracts used by banks. It also restricted non-deliverable forwards to hedging only, as the rupee trades near 97 to the dollar.

Updated Oct 16

New Capabilities

As of September 2026: RBI provides wholesale CBDC (e₹) and Unified Market Interface

Three Indian companies raised ₹1,025 crore in corporate bonds that exist as digital tokens on a shared ledger, with the cash leg settled instantly in the Reserve Bank of India's digital rupee. India is the first country to issue bonds natively on a distributed ledger while keeping formal ownership records with its statutory depositories.

Updated Sep 11

Rule Changes

As of May 2026: Led unanimous MPC decision to hold repo rate at 5.25% on February 6, 2026

India surpassed Japan in mid-2025 to become the world's fourth-largest economy. On February 1, 2026, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented Union Budget 2026 (India's first major tax code rewrite since 1961), with ₹12.2 lakh crore for capital expenditure and ₹20,000 crore for carbon capture technologies.

Updated May 23

Money Moves

As of May 2026: Leads RBI pause on rate cuts Feb 6, 2026; shifts focus to liquidity management as trade deal eases external pressures

In 2025, under Governor Sanjay Malhotra, the RBI cut its repo rate by a cumulative 125 basis points—from 6.50% in February to 5.25% on December 5. It was the sharpest easing since 2019. The cuts came with $16 billion in liquidity injections via bond purchases and a dollar-rupee swap, which Malhotra called a rare Goldilocks period of sub-target inflation and strong growth.

Updated May 9