Governor Shaktikanta Das emphasized the RBI's policy latitude to unwaveringly focus on price stability while voting for a status quo in interest rates earlier this month. The RBI has a solid economic momentum and the GDP predictions for 2024–25 support this assertion.
Since February 2023, the Reserve Bank has kept the benchmark lending rate (repo) at 6.5% due to concerns over inflation following the three-day Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting earlier this month. The minutes of the meeting were made public by the central bank on Friday.
"The gains in disinflation achieved over the last two years have to be preserved and taken forward towards aligning the headline inflation to the 4 per cent target on a durable basis," he stated in the minutes.
In the policy rate, five out of the six MPC members had opted to maintain the status quo. However, Jayanth R. Varma, a member of the MPC, had argued that "high interest rates entail a growth sacrifice" and had called for a 25 basis point drop in the repo rate.
