Following are the highlights of the announcements made by Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das after the third bi-monthly monetary policy review by MPC on Friday:
Monetary Policy Committee keeps key interest rate (repo) unchanged at 4% for 7th consecutive time;
Consequently, reverse repo rate too remains unchanged at 3.35%;
Bank rate also remains same at 4.25%;
RBI to continue its accommodative stance to sustain growth amid COVID;
Retail inflation (CPI) projection at 5.7% during 2021-22; may drop to 5.1% in Q1 of next fiscal;
RBI retains GDP growth projection for 2021-22 at 9.5%;
RBI says some high-frequency indicators looking up again during June-July;
RBI proposes to conduct two more auctions of Rs 25,000 crore each in August under G-SAP 2.0;
Repo rate cut by 250 bps since February 2019, reduced bank lending rate by 217 bps;
RBI says domestic borrowing costs have eased;
Transmission to lending rates has been stronger for MSMEs, housing and large industries;
Significant cut in interest rates on personal housing loans and loans to commercial real estate sector augurs well for the economy;
RBI announces additional measures on liquidity front;
After onset of COVID pandemic, RBI says it announced over 100 measures to mitigate its impact;
Next meeting of the MPC scheduled for October 6 to 8.