NEW DELHI: Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das has announced that the repo rate will remain at 6.5 percent. He made this announcement after the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting. Consequently, there will be no changes in interest rates for home loans and other EMIs.

This marks the fourth time the RBI has kept the MPC repo rate unchanged. The three-day MPC meeting, chaired by Shaktikanta Das, commenced on October 4. Following the meeting, the Governor held a press conference to announce the decisions.

India's consumer price index-based inflation rose to 7.8 percent in July due to increasing food prices but eased to 6.8 percent in August. In its June meeting, the RBI estimated the country's retail inflation for the fiscal year 2023-24 at 5.4 percent, up from the previous estimate of 5.1 percent. Shaktikanta Das also stated that the retail inflation projection will remain at 5.4 percent. Projections for the second quarter were revised to 6.4 percent from 6.2 percent while projections for the third quarter were adjusted to 5.6 percent from 5.7 percent. The retail inflation forecast for the fourth quarter remains unchanged at 5.2 percent. The GDP growth assumption for FY 2024 also remains unchanged at 6.5 percent.

RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das emphasized that the monetary policy is focused on achieving the inflation target of 4 percent. He also clarified that the RBI's inflation target is 4 percent, not a range of 2-6 percent.

In its previous monetary policy meeting held on August 10, the RBI did not alter repo rates. The repo rate had been continuously raised last year starting from May 2022, when it stood at 4 percent. Subsequently, the repo rate was increased to 6.5 percent in February of this year, with no changes in the subsequent meetings.