Repo Rate: RBI Monetary Policy April 2023 Minor relief from the increasing burden of loan and EMI, no change in repo rate this time

RBI Monetary Policy April 2023: The Reserve Bank of India has announced a new monetary policy. RBI MPC has not made any change in the rates this time. RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das announced this effect.

This time two issues were very important in front of the committee headed by the RBI Governor, one is the continuous inflation above 6 percent, and the other is the exercise to deal with the adverse global conditions. It is very difficult to practice both of them together.

The meeting assumes significance in the wake of high retail inflation and recent hikes by central banks of developed countries, particularly the US Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, and the Bank of England. The decision to keep the repo rates unchanged at 6.50 percent was announced by RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das after the meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee of RBI ended today.

no change in the repo rate

The announcements to be made today include repo rate, reverse repo rate, and other related decisions. In addition, the RBI Governor also discussed the current domestic and global economic situation. Explain that many economists believed that the repo rate could be increased by a quarter point or 25 basis points. The economic data released in the recent past played an important role in this.

What is the meaning of this decision?

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das announced the decisions of the Monetary Policy Committee on Thursday, 6 April 2023. This time there is no change in the rates. In February, the RBI had increased by 25 basis points. In the December monetary policy review, the central bank increased the key benchmark interest rate by 35 basis points (bps). Let us tell you that since May last year, the Reserve Bank has continuously increased the short-term lending rate to control inflation.

The rate may increase in future

Announcing the bi-monthly monetary policy, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said that the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will not hesitate to raise the rate in the future. While keeping the interest rate on hold, Das said that core inflation remains stable. Let us tell you that in February the retail inflation stood at 6.44 percent as compared to 6.52 percent in the previous month. The MPC takes into account the retail inflation number to determine the interest rates.

change in growth forecast

For the next fiscal, the RBI projected a growth rate of 6.5 percent, compared to the 6.4 percent estimated in February. In the latest Economic Survey of the Finance Ministry, the growth rate for 2023-24 was projected at 6-6.8 percent.

Last month, the US Federal Reserve announced an interest rate hike of 25 basis points to reduce inflation. With the hike, the Fed has raised the federal rate to 4.75-5 percent through March 2022 from near zero levels.

RBI kept an eye on these factors

The World Bank cut India's growth target to 6.3% from 6.6%, citing rising borrowing costs and slow income growth. These factors are seen to have an impact on private consumption growth.

Inflation in February eased from 6.52% in January to 6.44% but remained above the tolerance limit for the second consecutive month.

India's foreign exchange reserves increased by $5.98 billion to an eight-month high of $578.78 billion as on March 24, 2023.

India's merchandise exports declined to $33.88 billion in February from $37.15 billion in the same month a year ago, while imports fell to $51.31 billion from $55.9 billion in the same month last year.

So far this year, the rupee has traded in a band of 80.88-82.95 per dollar and was above 82.10 on Tuesday.

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