The government on Thursday assured that it will continue with the 9.5 per cent interest on Employees Provident Fund and said it was because of 'wise' investment decisions that it was able to offer such a rate.

"We will continue with the present rate (9.5 per cent). It is because the investment decisions were wise that we are still able to offer such a rate," Labour Minister Sahib Singh Verma told reporters in New Delhi after a board meeting of the Employees State Insurance Corporation.

Congratulating the officials of the Central Board of Trustees of Employees Provident Fund Organisation for their 'wise' investment decisions, he said, "Previously we had also given 12 per cent."

In the wake of falling interest rate regime, the finance ministry had asked the labour ministry to cut down the rate by 0.5 per cent after it realigned the rates of other savings instruments to the yields of government securities.