RBI keeps repo rate unchanged at 6.5%

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, April 06, 2023: After six hikes since May last year, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday announced its decision to keep the repo rate unchanged at 6.5 per cent.

 

RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) had decided to keep the repo rate unchanged at 6.5 per cent with readiness to act should the situation warrant so.

Since May last year, the RBI has raised the repo rate six times to control runaway inflation.

The RBI projected inflation to be at 5.2 per cent in the financial year 2023-24, and at 5.1 per cent in first quarter of the fiscal.

The RBI governor said the current financial year pointed towards softening of inflation. The war against inflation will continue until there is a durable decline, he said.

Repo rate is the rate at which the RBI lends money to banks, and any change in it affects bank loans and EMIs.

Shaktikanta Das said the global economy is facing a renewed phase of turbulence and the RBI will remain focused on withdrawal of monetary policy accommodation. He said the policy decisions taken in May 2022 are still working through the system and the current policy rate remains accommodative.

The banking and non-banking financial system remains healthy and India’s economic activity remains resilient with an expected growth of 7 per cent in the ongoing financial year.

The RBI also marginally raised the GDP growth projection for FY24 to 6.5 per cent from the earlier estimate of 6.4 per cent.

Shaktikanta Das said economic activity remained resilient and the economy was expected to grow at 7 per cent.

Courtesy: India Today