RAS question
The RBI announced Open Market Operations (OMO) in December 2025 to inject durable liquidity. What was the total planned OMO amount?
Correct answer: (C) ₹1 lakh crore.
The RBI planned Open Market Operations worth ₹1 lakh crore in December 2025 to inject liquidity into the banking system.
Explanation
The planned OMO amount was ₹1 lakh crore because RBI's December 5, 2025 press release specified purchase auctions of Government of India securities for an aggregate ₹1,00,000 crore. The release also explains the structure: two tranches of ₹50,000 crore each, scheduled for December 11, 2025 and December 18, 2025. These OMO purchases were part of a broader liquidity-management package, which also included a USD/INR buy-sell swap auction of USD 5 billion for three years on December 16, 2025. The key word in the question is total: the two ₹50,000 crore OMO tranches add up to ₹1 lakh crore, not ₹50,000 crore.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) ₹50,000 crore was the size of each OMO tranche, not the aggregate planned OMO amount.
- (B) ₹75,000 crore is not supported by the RBI release, which gives two equal ₹50,000 crore tranches.
- (D) ₹1.5 lakh crore overstates the plan; the RBI release gives an aggregate OMO purchase amount of ₹1,00,000 crore.
Concept
This tests monetary policy operations, especially how RBI uses OMO purchases to manage banking-system liquidity. It recurs in RAS because current RBI liquidity measures link static economy concepts with exam-relevant current affairs.