MUMBAI: RBI Governor Urjit Patel on Wednesday said there is further scope for banks to reduce lending rates as the Reserve Bank has already brought down its policy rates by 175 basis points since January 2015.
“There is still scope for the lending rates to come down because our policy rates came down by 175 basis points and weighted average lending rates have come down only by 85-90 basis points. I think there is scope for more transmission,” Patel said in the post-policy press meet.
In the sixth bi-monthly monetary policy on Wednesday, the RBI maintained status quo by keeping repo rate at 6.25 per cent and changed the policy stance neutral after being in accommodative mode for long, citing a slew of headwinds.
This is the second time in a row when the RBI left the policy rate unchanged awaiting more clarity on inflation trend and the impact of demonetisation on growth.
source”cnbc”