Government welcomes RBI monetary policy statement

The government on Thursday welcomed the RBI's monetary policy statement in which it maintained the status quo on its key short-term lending rate at 6 per cent.

Maintaining a neutral stance, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), in its first bi-monthly statement for FY19, revised upwards its forecast on real Gross Domestic Product growth from 7.2 per cent to 7.4 per cent, a Finance Ministry statement said.

This is broadly in line with the Economic Survey forecast, it added.

The Reserve Bank of India also revised downwards inflation in Q4 of FY18 from 5.1 per cent to 4.5 per cent.

"Further, the inflation forecast for H1 of FY19 has been revised downwards from 5.1-5.6 per cent to 4.4-4.7 per cent, and from 4.5-4.6 per cent to 4.4 per cent in H2 of FY19.

"MPC has maintained all policy rates unchanged. The government welcomes the policy statement," the statement said.

--IANS

vv/tsb