RBI monetary policy June 2021: Will RBI offer respite on key interest rates? Here is what is expected

New Delhi: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is widely expected to keep key interest steady on in its bi-monthly monetary policy on Friday. RBI Governor Saktikanta Das will announce the outcome of the policy at 10 am today.

In its last monetary policy, the central bank maintained status quo in its key interest rates.

The central bank announcing the outcome of its RBI bi-monthly Monetary Policy rates on April 7 said that it has decided to keep the repo rate unchanged at 4 percent and the reverse repo rate at 3.35 percent. Repo is the rate at which RBI lends funds to commercial banks when needed. It is a tool that the central bank uses to control inflation. The reverse repo rate is the rate at which the RBI borrows from banks.

The RBI monetary policy committee also decided to continue with its accomodative stance. An accommodative stance implies a rate cut in the future if the need arises to support the economy.

The MPC kept the key benchmark rate unchanged in its last five reviews. RBI had last revised its policy rate on May 22, 2020, in an off-policy cycle to perk up demand by cutting interest rates to a historic low.

Meanwhile, the government on Monday released India`s GDP figures, with data showing that India's economy contracted by less-than-expected 7.3 percent in the fiscal year ended March 2021.

The data furnished by the National Statistical Office (NSO) showed that real GDP or Gross Domestic Product at constant (2011-12) prices in 2020-21 attained a level of Rs 135.13 lakh crore, as against the `first revised estimate` of GDP for the year 2019-20 of Rs 145.69 lakh crore.

"`GDP at Constant (2011-12) Prices in Q4` of 2020-21 is estimated at Rs 38.96 lakh crore, as against Rs 38.33 lakh crore in Q4 of 2019-20, showing a growth of 1.6 per cent," according to the GDP estimates released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO).Besides, the CSO said: "There was a sharp spike from Rs 2.27 lakh crore in BE 2020-21 to Rs 5.95 lakh crore in the revised Estimates for the major subsidies (especially food subsidies) of Centre, presented in Budget 2021-22, in RE 2020-21."