Mumbai, August 6: RBI governor Shaktikanta Das addressed the media today at noon. One of the major announcements made in central bank's Bi-monthly Monetary Policy address was that the repo and the reverse repo rate would remain unchanged. The RBI governor announced that the repo rate would remain unchanged at 4 percent. The reverse repo would also remain unchanged at 3.3 percent.

RBI governor Shaktikanta Das mentioned that the domestic food inflation has remained elevated across economies ever since the coronavirus outbreak.  He further mentioned that global economic activity has remained fragile, however, global financial markets have been buoyant.

This was the first scheduled policy review since February. The RBI's six-member Monetary Policy Committee has already met twice outside its bi-monthly cycle, first in March and then in May, on account situation arising from the coronavirus pandemic. India Reports Single-Day Spike of 56,282 New COVID-19 Cases in Past 24 Hours, Tally Inches Closer to 20 Lakh, Death Toll at 40,699.

Repo Rate unchanged at 4%

In May, the MPC cut the repo rate by 40 bps to 4 percent, maintaining its accommodative policy stance. The RBI has already reduced the repo rate by a total of 115 basis points since February, on top of the 135 basis points last year, responding to slowing growth.

In late March, the government imposed one of the strictest lockdowns to curb the spread of coronavirus. The government started easing the restrictions in June although the infections continued to rise. The coronavirus tally in India has now inched closer to 20 lakhs as the country reported 56,282 New COVID-19 cases in past 24 hours.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 06, 2020 12:10 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).