The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) kept its policy rate on hold at 6.75 per cent on Tuesday, as widely expected, opting to wait until after the government's annual budget statement at the end February to decide on whether to cut interest rates further.

Almost all of the 39 economists polled by Reuters had expected the Reserve Bank of India to keep interest rates on hold on Tuesday.

The central bank cut the repo rate INREPO=ECI by 125 basis points in 2015, including by a bigger-than-expected 50 bps in September. It held rates at its last meeting in December.