Amid High Inflation, RBI’s Monetary Policy Committee Keeps Repo Rate 6.5%

• RBI’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) maintains policy repo rate at 6.50% for 11th bimonthly review.

• The MPC cuts the Cash Reserve Ratio for banks by 50 basis points to 4% to support growth.

• The panel remains ‘neutral’ and focused on a durable alignment of inflation with its 4% target.

• Inflation spiked to a 14-month high of 6.2% in October.

• The MPC downgrades the growth forecast for 2024-25 to 6.6% from 7.2%.

• Retail inflation for 2024-25 is projected at 4.8% due to sharp inflation increases in September and October.