Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Oct.8: Governor Shaktikanta Das announced today that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has opted to maintain the status quo unchanged for the eighth time in a row. The RBI has maintained its accommodative stance by keeping the repo rate at 4%. The reverse repo rate, meanwhile, remained unchanged at 3.35 percent, as expected. Apart from that, the RBI has maintained its 9.5 percent GDP growth forecast for the current Financial Year 2021-22.
The six-member Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of India’s central bank made the decision. The announcement comes amid growing global commodity costs and the need to keep inflation under control in the United States. The policy rate was last changed on May 22, 2020, in an off-policy cycle to boost demand by reducing interest rates to a historic low.
Address by Shri Shaktikanta Das, Governor, Reserve Bank of India
https://t.co/kr08rXY6Ng— ReserveBankOfIndia (@RBI) October 8, 2021
India’s central bank’s rate-setting panel began its three-day deliberations on the next bi-monthly monetary policy on Wednesday.
The Central government has asked the RBI to guarantee that retail inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index, stays at 4% with a 2% margin on each side. In August, the Reserve Bank held the benchmark interest rate steady, citing inflationary worries in its post-monetary policy review.
The RBI forecasts CPI inflation of 5.7 percent in 2021-22, with risks generally balanced, with 5.9 percent in the second quarter, 5.3 percent in the third quarter, and 5.8 percent in the fourth quarter. Inflation is expected to be 5.1 percent in the first quarter of 2022-23.
In August, the CPI inflation rate was 5.3 percent. The September inflation report is set to be revealed on October 12.
