Mumbai:The Reserve Bank of India, for the second straight time, on Thursday kept its key policy rate unchanged at 5.15 per cent, maintaining its accommodative policy stance as long as it was necessary to revive growth.
Following are the highlights of RBI's sixth bi-monthly monetary policy statement, 2019-20:
- Policy rate kept unchanged at 5.15 %
- GDP growth for 2020-21 fiscal pegged at 6 %
- Upward bias expected in overall food prices on account of vegetables, pulses
- Accommodative stance to revive growth maintained; inflation to remain elevated in short-run
- Retail inflation projection revised upwards to 6.5 % for January-March quarter
- Breakout of Coronavirus may impact tourist arrivals, global trade
- Rationalisation of personal income tax rates in the 2020-21 Budget to support domestic demand
- Need for adjustment in interest rates on small saving schemes outlined
- Pricing of loans by banks for the medium enterprises to be linked to an external benchmark effective April 1
- Time for the restructuring of GST-registered MSME loans extended till December 2020, from March 2020 at present
- Revised regulations for housing finance companies to be issued
- RBI to periodically publish a composite 'Digital Payments Index' (DPI) from July 2020 to capture the extent of digitisation of payments
- Framework for a Self-Regulatory Organisation (SRO) for digital payments to be issued
- Pan India Cheque Truncation System (CTS) to be made operational by September
- Extension of date of commencement of commercial operations of project loans for commercial real estate, delayed for reasons beyond the control of promoters, by one year, allowed
- Crude prices likely to remain volatile
- Foreign exchange reserves stood at USD 471.4 billion on February 4, 2020
- Net FDI rose to USD 24.4 billion in April-November 2019, against USD 21.2 billion a year ago
- Net foreign portfolio investment (FPI) stood at USD 8.6 billion in 2010-20 (till February 4) as against net outflows of USD 14.2 billion in the year-ago period
- All six members of Monetary Policy Committee vote in favour of maintaining the status quo on interest rate
- Next meeting of the MPC scheduled during March 31, April 1 and 3, 2020.