RBI Keeps the Repo Rate Unchanged

The Reserve Bank of India has kept repo rate unchanged at 6.25% in its second bi-monthly monetary policy review.
Reverse Repo rate has been kept unchanged at 6%.
The RBI has cut the Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR) by 50 basis points to 20%.
RBI has projected the headline inflation in the range of 2.0-3.5% in the first half of 2017-18 and 3.5-4.5% in the second half. According to the central bank, the implementation of GST is not expected to have material impact on overall inflation. It has observed that the 7th Pay Commission allowances, geo political, financial risk pose upside risk to inflation.
RBI has reduced the growth projection for the current fiscal to 7.3% from 7.4%.
The monetary policy decision has been taken by the six-member monetary policy committee (MPC).
The RBI has also revised its target for gross value added (GVA) by 10 basis points to 7.3%.

Background

SLR is the portion of bank deposits that have to be invested in government bonds. Components of SLR include cash in hand, gold owned by the bank, balance with RBI, Net balance in current account & Investment in Government securities. SLR has to be maintained at the close of business on every day.
Repo rate, or repurchase rate, is the rate at which RBI lends to banks for short periods. This is done by RBI buying government bonds from banks with an agreement to sell them back at a fixed rate. The objective of Repo is to inject liquidity in the system. If RBI wants to make it more expensive for banks to borrow money, it increases the repo rate. Similarly, if it wants to make it cheaper for banks to borrow money, it reduces the repo rate.
Reverse repo rate is the rate of interest at which the RBI borrows funds from other banks in the short term. This is done by RBI selling government bonds / securities to banks with the commitment to buy them back at a future date.
GVA is another measure for economic growth.

Month: Current Affairs - June, 2017