Delhi: The Reserve Bank of India's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) headed by Governor Shaktikanta Das today delivered its fourth repo rate cut in a row.
Delhi: The Reserve Bank of India's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) headed by Governor Shaktikanta Das today delivered its fourth repo rate cut in a row.
Reserve Bank's MPC cut the repo rate, the key interest rate at which it lends short-term funds to commercial banks, by 35 basis points or 0.35 percentage points to 5.40 per cent, the lowest in over nine years.
“After the repo rate cut by the Reserve Bank of India loan equated monthly instalments (EMI) for home and other loan borrowers are set to come down” Analysts said.
The decision of the monetary policy committee to cut repo rate was unanimous with four members voting to cut rate by 35 basis points while the rest voted for a 25 basis point rate cut.
The Reserve Bank of India cut gross domestic product (GDP) growth target for the current financial year to 6.9 per cent from 7 per cent in the June policy.
“The range of GDP growth is projected at 5.8 to 6.6 per cent for the first half of 2019-20 and 7.3-7.5 per cent for the second half with risks tilted to the downside”, Reserve Bank of India said in its policy document.
Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India has projected inflation target of 3.1 per cent for the second quarter of 2019-20 and 3.5-3.7 per cent for the second half of the current financial year, below its medium-term consumer inflation target of 4%.
The last time the RBI made so many back-to-back cuts was after the global financial crisis over a decade ago when most major central banks were desperate to revive economic growth.
With today's rate cut, the Reserve Bank of India has become the most dovish Asian central bank, according to Analysts.