The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday hiked policy interest rates, sending a message to banks that they need to do the same for their loans. The silver lining is that interest rates on fixed deposits will also rise from the current 7-8% levels.
The RBI increased the repo rate (the rate at which it lends money to banks) by 25 basis points to 6% and the reverse repo rate (the rate at which the RBI takes out excess cash in the banking system) by 50 basis points to 5% with immediate effect.
The central bank did this primarily to contain inflation and to ‘normalise’ policy rates, considering the speed at which India’s economy is growing. Interest rate is a monetary tool used by central banks to ensure that a fast-growing economy doesn’t get out of hand — primarily, that prices of goods, or inflation, don’t spiral out of control due to excessive demand, the hallmark of fast-growing economies.
This is done essentially by controlling the amount of money floating in the economy by raising or lowering interest rates. When an economy declines, the opposite happens — central banks lower interest rates so that people are persuaded to buy goods and thereby generate demand.
“The RBI believes inflation has plateaued (and the declining trajectory inline with its projection), but it highlights that it will remain at ‘unacceptably’ high levels for a few more months.
It hence believes that there is a need for continued policy response to contain inflation and anchor inflation expectations,” said Ashutosh Datar, economist with the brokerage IIFL.
“The broad indication of the RBI action on Thursday is that lending rates will rise. We will take a call in a few days on increasing our personal and home loan rates because the impact of this rate hike will have to be passed on to consumers,” said Kamlesh Rao, executive vice president (personal loans and home finance), Kotak Mahindra Bank.
The timing of the hike will vary from bank to bank, depending on the cost of their money.
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