RBI holds key lending rates steady in first monetary policy post-budget

PTC News Desk: Governor Shaktikanta Das declared today that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has maintained the benchmark interest rate at its current level for the ninth consecutive month.

The six-member Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), led by Shaktikanta Das, maintained the repo rate at 6.5%. In February 2023, the rates were last modified.

Following three days of deliberations that started on Tuesday, the RBI’s rate-setting panel made its announcement. By a vote of 4 to 2, the RBI MPC decided to maintain the policy rate. “In general, inflation is decreasing,” Mr. Das stated in a video speech. Additionally, he stated that there is continuous but “uneven expansion” in the global economic outlook. 

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AI and other emerging technologies “pose a new set of challenges” for the world economy, according to the governor of the RBI. He has stated time and time again that the RBI would not change course until inflation was definitely headed toward the 4% target.

If the 7.2% predicted growth is realized, India’s economy would continue to develop at one of the highest rates in the world, even with a little deceleration from the 8.2% rise in fiscal 2024. In the meanwhile, ahead of today’s monetary policy announcement, the stock market opened on a negative note.

The Nifty slid 83.80 points, or 0.34 percent, to 24,213.70 points, while the Sensex fell 251.76 points, or 0.32 percent, to 79,216.25 points.

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