RBI keeps repo rate unchanged at 6.5 per cent: Shaktikanta Das

NEW DELHI,DEC 8: The RBI Monetary Policy Committee unanimously decided to keep the repo rate unchanged at 6.5 per cent on Friday.

The three-day bi-monthly monetary policy committee (MPC) meeting of the RBI began on Wednesday. The RBI typically conducts six bimonthly meetings in a financial year, where it deliberates interest rates, money supply, inflation outlook, and various macroeconomic indicators.

For the fourth straight occasion, the monetary policy committee, through its October review meeting, unanimously decided to keep the policy repo rate unchanged at 6.5 per cent, thus maintaining the status quo. In its past four meetings, it held the repo rate unchanged at 6.5 per cent.

The repo rate is the rate of interest at which RBI lends to other banks.

While deliberating the policy statement in October, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said the central bank was concerned and it had identified high inflation as a major risk to macro-economic stability and sustainable growth.

Das had reiterated that the monetary policy committee is committed to aligning India’s headline inflation at 4 per cent level.

A relative decline in inflation, barring the latest spike, and its potential for further decline may have prompted the central bank to put the brake on the key interest rate. Inflation has been a concern for many countries, including advanced economies, but India has largely managed to steer its inflation trajectory quite well.

-PTI