The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday surprised the market by slashing repo rate by 25 basis points to 7.75%  from 8%, with immediate effect, ahead of its policy review on February 3.

Commenting on the same, Arundhati Bhattacharya, chairman, State bank of India (SBI), said, ''We welcome the 25 basis point repo rate cut by RBI. With global crude and commodity prices expected to be benign, inflationary expectations moderating to single digit, the current disinflationary impetus is likely to be firmly entrenched and unwinding. We thus believe that this cut may be just the beginning of a rate easing cycle.''