Mumbai, December 6
RBI Monetary Policy Meeting: The Reserve Bank of India on Friday decided to keep the policy rate unchanged for the 11th consecutive time, but sharply cut its GDP growth forecast for the current fiscal year to 6.6 percent from 7.2 percent earlier. The percentage was estimated. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) kept interest rates on hold despite July-September quarter GDP growth falling to a 7-quarter low of 5.4 percent.
The cycle of rate hikes was halted in April last year after six consecutive rate hikes of 250 basis points since May 2022. Announcing the fifth bi-monthly monetary policy for the current financial year, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has decided to maintain the repo rate at 6.5 per cent with the policy stance at neutral. has not changed.
Listen to the details released by RBI Garwaran Shashikant Das via video:-
Monetary Policy Statement by Shri Shaktikanta Das, RBI Governor – December 06, 2024, at 10 am
— ReserveBankOfIndia (@RBI) December 6, 2024
He said the MPC will keep an eye on the upcoming macroeconomic data for future action. The RBI cut the GDP growth estimate to 6.6 percent from the previous level of 7.2 percent, while raising the inflation target for the current fiscal to 4.8 percent from the previous estimate of 4.5 percent. In an effort to make more money available for lending to banks to boost economic activity, the RBI has reduced the cash reserve ratio to 4 percent from the current 4.5 percent. This will release Rs 1.16 lakh crore to banks and improve their lending capacity.
The government reconstituted the Reserve Bank’s rate-setting panel – the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) – in October. This was the second MPC meeting of the reconstituted panel with three newly appointed external members – Ram Singh, Saugata Bhattacharya and Nagesh Kumar. News-Patiala