New Delhi, 8 Dec (KNN) The Reserve Bank of India (RBI)  monetary policy committee (MPC) decided to keep the repo rate and reverse repo rate unchanged due to concerns over new variant Omnicron.

This is the 9th consecutive time that the Central Bank has maintained the current rates.

It has showed bigger concerns for growth than inflation, while GDP projection retained at 9.5% and marginal standing facility (MSF) is at 4.25 per cent.

For interest rate, MPC decided to keep it unchanged and agreed on continuation with accommodative stance.

Shaktikanta Das, the RBI governor said that recent reductions in excise duty and state VAT on petrol and diesel aims at increasing purchasing power to support consumption demand.

It has also announced that a unified payments interface (UPI) based feature phone products will be launched to enhance limit for Gilts Retail, IPOs from INR 2 lakh to INR 5 lakh.

Due to rising inflation industries were worried about possible rise of interest rates but by maintaining the stats-quo RBI has signalled otherwise .

“We think it is a prudent decision by the Central bank because the threat of Omicron variant of Corona virus is looming. Higher interest rates could have derailed the  recovery process having serious implications for livelihood,” said Anil Bhardwaj, Secretary General of Federation of Indian Micro and Small & Medium Enterprises (FISME).    

The GDP for Q3 has been projected at 6.6 per cent, and for Q4 it has it has been pegged at 6 per cent.

Real GDP growth is projected at 17.2 per cent for Q1 of 2022-23 and at 7.8 per cent for Q2 of 2022-23.