Hope for lower lending rates

The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) welcomes the 25 basis points cut in repo rate by the Reserve Bank of India on 4 April 2019.

Commenting on first bi-monthly monetary policy of 2019-20 announced vt RBI, FICCI President Sandip Somany said: “We welcome the 25 basis points cut in repo rate by the RBI, though we had expected a larger cut given benign inflation and slowing industrial as well as exports growth and liquidity concerns.”

FICCI, he said, hopes that the two consecutive cuts in the repo rate would translate into lower lending rates for both retail and corporate credit.

This would give an impetus to the domestic economy through greater consumption demand as well as private investments.

“This is important as we do not foresee much impetus coming from external sources of growth as the global economy continues to show signs of moderation,” said Somany.

Over the last few months, there has been an improvement in capacity utilisation across sectors as well as reduction in banking NPAs.

The need of the hour is for monetary policy to complement the fiscal policy and strengthen the growth impulses that are slowly building in the economy. The real repo rate has remained high for a long time and there is a scope of further reduction in the repo rate.

“We do hope that RBI shall continue the accommodative stance in subsequent months as well,” added Somany. fiinews.com