Monetary Policy Committee Meeting:
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its bimonthly Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) Meeting has retained benchmark interest rates unchanged for the 5th time in a row.
- The key repo rate has been paused for five consecutive reviews at 6.5%.
- Repo rate is the rate at which the central bank of a country (RBI) lends money to commercial banks in the event of any shortfall of funds. Here, the central bank purchases the security.
- Standing Deposit Facility (SDF): 6.25 % The SDF is a liquidity window through which the RBI will give banks an option to park excess liquidity with it.
- Marginal Standing Facility Rate: 6.75% MSF is a window for scheduled banks to borrow overnight from the RBI in an emergency situation when interbank liquidity dries up completely.
- Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR): 4.50% ,Under CRR, the commercial banks have to hold a certain minimum amount of deposit (NDTL) as reserves with the central bank.
- Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR): 18.00%, SLR is the minimum percentage of deposits that a commercial bank has to maintain in the form of liquid cash, gold or other securities.
- The GDP growth projection for 2023-24 was raised to 7% from earlier 6.5%, buoyed by a robust 7.6% growth in the second quarter of 2023-24 FY.
- The Consumer Price Index (CPI) based inflation forecast for the fiscal year 2023-24 has been retained at 5.4%.
