Govt welcomes RBI decision to hold rates, disagrees with growth forecast

RBI on Friday kept the policy repo rate unchanged at 6.5 per cent

The government on Friday welcomed the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) decision to keep its key benchmark lending rates unchanged, but disagreed with the monetary policy committee's (MPC) growth forecast.

It said the economic growth should be higher than the 7.4 per cent projected by the MPC.

"Government welcomes MPC statement and decision to keep the rates unchanged. Government's assessment of inflation is in line with the MPC's assessment. We believe growth should turn out to be higher than that projected by MPC," Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg said tweeted.

His remarks came after the RBI on Friday maintained its key benchmark lending rates in its fourth bi-monthly monetary policy review of 2018-19, keeping the policy repo rate unchanged at 6.5 per cent.

"Consequently, the reverse repo rate remains at 6.25 per cent, and the marginal standing facility (MSF) rate and the Bank Rate at 6.75 per cent," the RBI said.