RBI MPC meet October 2023: Repo rate kept unchanged for 4th consecutive term
Keeping in mind inflation, economy and global conditions, the Reserve Bank has once again decided to keep the interest rates unchanged. After the important three-day meeting of the MPC, the Governor of the Reserve Bank said on Friday that it has been decided to maintain the main policy rate repo rate at 6.50 percent. In this way, the sequence of keeping the repo rate stable for the last eight months is being maintained this time also.
RBI Governor said that inflation still remains a challenge for the economy
After the Corona pandemic, the Reserve Bank had continuously reduced the repo rate to support economic growth. At that time the main policy interest rate was reduced to 4 percent. The repo rate remained at 4 percent for a long time. However, later the Reserve Bank was forced to increase the repo rate after inflation went out of control and all the central banks including the US Central Bank Federal Reserve increased the interest rates.
The increase started from May 2022
The Reserve Bank had started this in May last year. Then in May 2022, there was a need for the Central Bank to call an emergency meeting of the MPC. In that meeting, the Reserve Bank had increased the repo rate in one go by 40 basis points i.e. 0.40 percent. After that the repo rate was increased in 5 consecutive meetings. This process of increasing the repo rate continued till February 2023. From May 2022 to February 2023, the Reserve Bank increased the repo rate by 2.50 percent.
This is the main policy interest rate right now
The Monetary Policy Committee of the Reserve Bank meets every two months to decide on interest rates. This is the fourth meeting of the current financial year. This meeting, which lasted for three days, started on Wednesday, October 4. Earlier, in the MPC meeting held in the months of April, June and August, the Reserve Bank had also decided to keep the interest rates stable. The rate has not been increased since February 2023. Currently the repo rate of the Reserve Bank is 6.5 percent.
