RBI Keeps Key Lending Rates Unchanged

Agencies

New Delhi: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has kept the benchmark interest rate unchanged for the ninth consecutive time, governor Shaktikanta Das announced today.

The Shaktikanta Das-headed six-member Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) kept the repo rate unchanged at 6.5 per cent. It had last changed rates in February 2023.

The decision was announced after the RBI’s rate-setting panel’s three-day deliberations, which began on Tuesday.

The RBI MPC voted 4:2 to keep the policy rate unchanged.

“Inflation is broadly on the declining trajectory,” Mr Das said in a video address.

He also said that the global economic outlook exhibits steady, though “uneven expansion”. 

The RBI governor said that new technologies like AI “pose a new set of challenges” for the global economy.

He has repeatedly said the RBI wouldn’t shift policy gears until inflation was firmly on the path to reaching the target of 4%.

Despite some slowdown expected from the 8.2% expansion in fiscal 2024, India will remain among the fastest-growing economies globally if the 7.2% expected growth is achieved.

Meanwhile, the stock market opened on a bearish note today ahead of the monetary policy announcement.

While Sensex declined 251.76 points, or 0.32 per cent, to 79,216.25 points, the Nifty fell 83.80 points, or 0.34 per cent, to 24,213.70 points.

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