The Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) on Friday announced its decision to keep the repo rate unchanged at 6.50 percent for the fifth consecutive time. The six-member rate-setting committee unanimously decided to keep the repo rate unchanged for the fifth time after raising the repo rate by 250 bps from May 2022 to December 2022.
Announcing the bi-monthly monetary policy, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said that the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has unanimously decided to keep the repo rate unchanged at 6.5 percent.
Also read: You can Renew Your Lapse LIC Policy; Follow These Steps
According to the governor, the growth forecast for the current financial year has been raised to 7 percent from 6.5 percent earlier.
The central bank has estimated consumer price inflation (CPI)-based retail inflation at 5.4 percent for the current financial year.
The RBI estimates growth at 6.7 percent, 6.5 percent, and 6.4 percent, in the first, second, and third quarters of the next fiscal respectively.
Earlier, In the financial year 2022-23, the Indian economy rose by 7.2 percent. The last fiscal year ended in March 2023. The current FY would end in March 2024.
The MPC meeting was held in the background of inflation falling to 4.87 percent in October. The November print of inflation is expected to be released next week.
The government directed the RBI to keep CPI inflation at 4 percent with a margin of 2 percent on either side.
Hikes UPI Payment Limit
The RBI Committee in the meeting also hiked the UPI payment limit from rs 1 lakh to rs 5 lakh for bill payments in hospitals and educational institutions.
RBI Governor, while addressing the media after December's bi-monthly monetary policy meeting, informed that they review limits on various types of Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions from time to time.
(With Agency Inputs)
Also Read: Government Offers For Selling 8% IN IRCON, Institutional buyers put in bids worth Rs 2,400 cr