when a rate hike was appearing to be almost certain the rbi in a surprise move has yet again kept key rates rate unchanged in its bimonthly monetary policy review held on april 8 2022 while borrowers will hardly complain as they are currently paying the lowest interest rates seen in the last two decades however this can make fixed deposit fd investors nervous after todays rate announcement the repo rate and reverse rate remain at 4 and 335 respectively it has been more than 22 months since the last change in repo rate when it was reduced to 4 on may 22 2020 which is the lowest rate since april 2001while the central bank has managed to push a rate hike for the time being however given the global turmoil it may not be able to hold it for long going forward things could change the central bank has been doing the balancing act between economic growth and inflation as coronarelated restrictions had an adverse impact on the economic growth the rbis focus so far has been on reviving growth however there are many indicators which hint that inflation may become a concern soon going by the global trend all indicators are leading to higher inflation in coming months in the us the retail inflation has risen to a 40year high of 79 in february 2022 to keep future inflation under control the us federal reserve on march 16 2022 not only hiked the interest rates by 025 but also hinted at more hikes in the coming future the retail inflation in india measured by the consumer price index cpi for february 2022 has risen to 607 the highest level in the last 8 months the primary focus of the central bank will be shift to its core mandate which is to manage retail inflation and ensure that it remains within the range of the 26 a higher domestic retail inflation in coming days may also compel the rbi to increase the policy rates going forwardwith a possibility of a rate hike soon the gsec rate of india which is the benchmark of interest rate in a country has already risen from 646 on january 3 2022 to 684 on march 31 2022here is what is likely to happen to fd rates and what depositors should do further we also tell you what loan borrowers should also expect short term deposit rates may increase firstwhenever the interest rate cycle makes a uturn from the bottom it is typically the short to medium term interest rates that are likely to rise first as far as longterm interest rates are concerned it will take a little longer for these rates to go up significantly avoid locking deposits for longer term at lower rateif you are planning to book an fd now or are looking to renew your existing fd then it will be better to go for shorter term fd say one year or lower so that your deposit is