The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) kept its key policy repo rate unchanged on Tuesday, but lowered the SLR by half a%age point to 22% to free up more money for lending.
Expert comments:
RUPA REGE NITSURE, CHIEF ECONOMIST, BANK OF BARODA, MUMBAI
"The tone of the policy statement appears to be unchanged from June policy but I am a bit surprised with SLR reduction at this moment because credit demand is still weak. The banking industry still has excess SLR. I have a feeling RBI has implemented it as a long term reform measure to inculcate the sense of fiscal discipline. I think the guidance if one reads it carefully, is cautious rather than dovish.
He is giving a clear signal that one should not expect any monetary policy easing in a fairly long period of time because while RBI is confident that it will attain inflation target of at 8% by January 2015, it is not so confident to attain the 6% by 2016."
SHAKTI SATAPATHY, FIXED INCOME STRATEGIST, AK CAPITAL, MUMBAI
"While maintaining the medium-term inflation target of 6% by 2016 is clearly a priority, the bank's approach towards policy action would be more of a balanced approach leaving the policy rates unchanged up until November 2014. On the other hand, the SLR cut by 50 bps and subsequent reduction in SLR holdings under HTM category to 24% would essentially infuse some growth-supportive liquidity in the system."
UPASNA BHARDWAJ, ECONOMIST, ING VYSYA BANK, MUMBAI
"RBI's policy today has been slightly hawkish than the last statement by shifting the inflation target from 8% towards the medium term target of 6%, thereby further affirming our view of a pause on the repo rate front at least through this year."
KILLOL PANDYA, FUND MANAGER-DEBT AT LIC NOMURA MUTUAL FUND, MUMBAI
"The initial outcome seem quite hawkish on inflation as the inflation target has been shifted from 8% towards the medium term target of around 6%. Rest of the things are pretty much in line with market expectations. It seems like there would not be any rate cuts at least in this calendar year."
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