The six-member Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) headed by the Governor of RBI, Shaktikant Das, voted unanimously to keep the policy rate unchanged and announced the 5th bi-monthly monetary policy of 2019-20 on Thursday, 5th December 2019.
Highlights from the 5th bi-monthly monetary policy:
- The earlier projected GDP growth of 6.1% during the 4th bi-monthly monetary policy was reduced to 5% for 2019-20.
- Expected GDP 4.9-5.5% from October 2019 to March 2020 and 5.9-6.3% from April 2020 to October 2020.
- Propelled by a surge in food prices, Consumer Price Inflation (CPI) increased to 4.6% in October 2019.
- CPI projected upwards for 2nd half of the financial year to 5.1-4.7% and 4.0-3.8% for 1st half of the financial year 2020-21.
- Repo Rate 5.15%, Reserve Repo 4.90 %, Marginal Standing Rate, and Bank Rate at 5.40% (all unchanged).
The 6th Bi-Monthly Monetary Policy for 2019-20 will be released on 6th February 2020.