Amidst uneven growth recovery and concerns over a spike in inflation, the Monetary Policy Committee of the Reserve Bank of India chose to maintain a status quo on key rates. It also continued with its accommodative stance to support growth.

“The MPC voted unanimously to maintain status-quo about policy repo rate and by a majority of 5:1 to maintain the accommodative stance,” said RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das, who chairs the MPC, adding that the stance remains accommodative to revive and maintain growth.

The repo rate stands at 4 per cent and the reverse repo rate at 3.35 per cent. MSF rate and bank rate remain unchanged at 4.25 per cent.

The six-member MPC held its bi-monthly monetary policy meeting between October 6 and October 8.

This was Das’s 12th statement since the onset of the pandemic, of which two were made outside of the monetary policy cycle. On two occasions- March and May, the MPC had to take pre-emptive action.

“The RBI has taken over 100 measures to proactively and decisively respond to the unprecedented crisis. We have not been a prisoner of any rule book,” Das said in his opening comments.

The Reserve Bank had last cut the repo rate by 40 basis points in May 2020 but has maintained the status quo on rates since then.

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