indias central bank on wednesday raised its main interest rate for the fifth time this year but by a smaller margin as inflation eases and other countries look to slow the pace of hikes the move by the reserve bank of india rbi comes after us federal reserve chairman jerome powell signalled last week that officials would begin to take their foot off the pedal gdp growth in india remains resilient and inflation is expected to moderate rbi governor shaktikanta das said in a webcast however he added but the battle against inflation is not over pressure points from high and sticky core inflation and exposure of food inflation to international factors and weatherrelated events do remain das said the benchmark repurchase rate would rise 35 basis points to 625 percent following three straight rises of half a percentage point since june and one of 40 points in may the move was in line with market expectations consumer inflation has this year hovered above the rbis upper band of six percent hitting a high of 779 percent in april though it eased to 677 percent in october the bank retained its inflation forecast of 67 percent for the fiscal year to march but trimmed its economic growth projection to 68 percent from 70 percent india imports more than 80 percent of its crude oil needs and rising petrol costs  caused by russias invasion of ukraine  have had a ripple effect on prices for the countrys 14 billion people elevated commodity prices and a falling rupee have left india struggling with a deteriorating trade balance with net imports in the september quarter nearly doubling yearonyear exports plunged to a 20month low of 2978 billion in october as high inflation and recession fears hit demand in key overseas markets the indian rupee hit record low against the dollar in october as the us unit was boosted by sharp rate hikes by the fed however it has recovered slightly since then thanks to interventions by the rbi data last week showed indian economic growth slowed to 63 percent onyear in julyseptember that was well down from 135 percent recorded in the previous three months which was boosted by the recovery from the depths of the pandemic in 2021