The Reserve Bank of India, on Thursday, decided to keep the policy repo rate unchanged at 6.5 percent.
The six-member RBI’s monetary policy committee, in its last meeting of FY24, voted by 5:1 majority to keep the repo rate unchanged as the retail inflation continues to be above the target of 4 percent.
Repo rate is the interest rate at which commercial banks draw funds from RBI to overcome short-term liquidity mismatches.
This is the sixth meeting that the monetary policy committee of RBI has maintained a status quo on the repo rate.
The Consumer Price Index for FY24 is projected at 5.4 percent while it is likely to be 4.5 percent in 2025.
The apex bank has pegged the real GDP growth for 2024-25 at 7 percent.
Meanwhile, on the Paytm issue, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said the apex bank has been in touch with Paytm for quite some time and all the regulatory actions are in tune with systematic stability and the interests of customers.
Retail inflation in the current financial year has declined after touching a peak of 7.44 percent in July 2023. However, it is still high and was 5.69 percent in December 2023, though within the Apex Bank’s comfort zone of 4-6 percent.
The monetary policy committee of RBI is entrusted with the responsibility of deciding the policy repo rate to achieve the inflation target, keeping in mind the growth objective.
