Economics

India’s Central Bank Keeps Key Rate Unchanged on Inflation Risks

  • Benchmark repurchase rate kept at 4%, other rates also on hold
  • Announces measures to protect businesses, check bad loans

Shoppers wear protective masks while buying vegetables from a street stall in Mumbai.

Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg
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India’s central bank kept interest rates unchanged, while outlining a number of measures to ease stress in the banking sector as the economy heads for its first full-year contraction in more than four decades.

The Monetary Policy Committee voted to keep the benchmark repurchase rate at a record low of 4%, Governor Shaktikanta Das said in an online broadcast on Thursday. Economists were split on the decision, with half of the 44 surveyed by Bloomberg predicting a 25 basis-point reduction, one predicting a 50-point cut and the rest seeing no change.