Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Dec 8: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its bi-monthly policy review announced on Wednesday that repo rate will remain unchanged.
Governor Shaktikanta Das today announced that the central bank has decided to keep key rates unchanged – repo rate remains at 4 percent and the stance remains accommodative.
“Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted unanimously to keep the policy repo rate at 4% and the stance remains accommodative. Marginal Standing Facility (MSF) rate and bank rate also remains unchanged at 3.35%,” said Reserve Bank of India Governor.
Notably, RBI has not changed the repo rate for the 9th time in a row. Repo rates are at their lowest level since April 2001. The last time the RBI changed the policy rate was in May 2020. The Central bank had slashed the key policy rates in May 2020 to historic lows to support the economy hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then the PBI has maintained the status quo. RBI’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting began on 6 December which was the last meeting of the committee in this calendar year.
“Indian economy hauled itself out of its deepest contraction; we are better prepared to deal with Covid-19,” said Das.
RBI has retained the GDP growth forecast for this fiscal year 2021-22 at 9.5%. Experts had already said that to further strengthen the recovery in the economy; RBI will not increase or reduce rates yet.
According to the Reserve Bank, GDP growth can be 6.6% in the third quarter (October-December) of this financial year and 6% in the fourth quarter (January-March).
