Timeline: Changes to India's SLR for banks since 1949

REUTERS - Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan surprised markets in his maiden policy review on Friday by raising interest rates to ward off rising inflation while scaling back some emergency measures recently taken to support the ailing rupee.

Rajan, who took office early this month amid India's worst economic crisis since 1991, increased the RBI's policy repo rate by 25 basis points (bps) to 7.50 percent, defying most forecasts that he would leave it on hold to bolster a sluggish economy.

The RBI reduced the marginal standing facility (MSF) rate to 9.50 percent, making it cheaper for banks to borrow. Since mid-July, the MSF has been widely been viewed as India's effective policy rate.

Here is a timeline on changes in the statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) since 1949.

RATE (PCT) EFFECTIVE DATE

23.00 11-08-2012

24.00 18-12-2010

25.00 07-11-2009

24.00 08-11-2008

25.00 25-10-1997

31.50 29-10-1994

33.75 17-09-1994

34.25 20-08-1994

34.75 16-10-1993

37.25 18-09-1993

37.50 21-08-1993

37.75 06-03-1993

38.00 06-02-1993

38.25 09-01-1993

38.50 29-02-1992

38.50 22-09-1990

38.00 02-01-1988

37.50 25-04-1987

37.00 06-07-1985

36.50 08-06-1985

36.00 01-09-1984

35.50 28-07-1984

35.00 30-10-1981

34.50 25-09-1981

34.00 01-12-1978

33.00 01-07-1974

32.00 08-12-1973

30.00 17-11-1972

29.00 04-08-1972

28.00 28-08-1970

27.00 24-04-1970

26.00 05-02-1970

25.00 16-09-1964

20.00 16-03-1949

(Compiled by Neha Dasgupta; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)