"The economy is going through a very difficult patch and business confidence has plummeted. New investments have slowed down," Assocham President Rajkumar Dhoot said during his interaction with RBI Governor D Subbarao ahead of the central bank's monetary policy review scheduled on April 17.
In addition, bankers also told Business Standard that they did not expect the central bank to hike policy rates or the cash reserve ratio in the third quarter review scheduled for October 27 as inflation was not rising fast though inflationary expectations were there.
As if any proof was needed, the spate of Cash Reserve Ratio hikes clearly underlines the Reserve Bank of India's intention to clamp down on inflation before the situation deteriorates any further.
India grew at 6.7 per cent in 2008-09. For the current fiscal 2009-10, the Economic Survey projected a 7 per cent growth rate plus/minus 0.75 per cent.
The RBI's assessment of the economy, presented as a prelude to the policy announcement, was relatively downbeat. Conceding the persistence of a hostile global environment and domestic weakness, the RBI expects GDP growth during 2009-10 to be 6 per cent. This is slightly higher than the 5.7 per cent that reflects the median of its external forecasters' survey.
Mirroring weak cues from the overseas markets, the Sensex opened with a negative gap of 215 points at 10,765. The index thereafter tried to recover but slipped to lower levels after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced its annual credit policy.
Within hours of RBI slashing the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) by 0.25 per cent, State Bank (SBI) on Tuesday hinted at a likely reduction in lending rates soon.
Bankers on Tuesday ruled out any immediate reduction in lending rates, saying any step in that direction will be determined by the cost of funds.
When costs go down, interest rates will go down, says managing director and CEO Aditya Puri.
The RBI has announced its credit policy last week and auto financiers believe that consumers should 'wait and watch' before the interest rates on auto loans settle down.
RBI slashes repo and reverse repo rates to all-time lows.
The Reserve Bank of India is likely to take a call on the relaxations sought by HDFC Bank in relation to the merger, as the date of merger draws closer, sources said. The HDFC twins, which announced their decision to merge in April last year, received National Company Law Tribunal's (NCLT's) approval recently - a key milestone to close the deal in due time. The management of both the entities had said that it will take 15-18 months for the merger.
The Reserve Bank of India, which has already raised the cash reserve ratio (CRR) thrice since December last year, is contemplating another hike, though only on incremental deposits this time.
The NSE Nifty ended at 3,044, up 158 points. The market breadth was fairly positive with over three advancing stocks for every declining share - out of 2,652 stocks traded, 1,970 advanced, 633 declined and the rest were unchanged today.
Mukherjee advised European and American policymakers to follow regulatory mechanism on the lines of the Indian banking system.
The interest rate is the RBI's best bet for keeping the economy close to the 'normality' benchmark.
Real interest rates yet to touch highs witnessed in mid-90s.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram says stock market fall not a cause for worry.
The indications are all there but it will still be a few days before banks start raising lending rates that affect your equated monthly instalments (EMI).
In a late Tuesday evening development, RBI raised the repo rate, or the rate at which it lends to banks, by 50 basis points to 8.50 per cent. The cash reserve ratio, or the proportion of deposits kept with the central bank, will be increased by 50 basis points to 8.75 per cent.
Reserve Bank on Tuesday kept the bank rate and CRR unchanged, but hiked repo and reverse repo rate by 0.25 per cent to 5.5 per cent and 6.5 per cent respectively as part of measures to rein in inflation.
"The government has always believed in stable policies. I am sure that this will continue in the coming budget," ICICI Bank's non-executive chairman, K V Kamath, told reporters on the sidelines of a function organised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India in Mumbai.
A bill to amend Banking Regulation Act, which will enable RBI to lower the mandatory limits on statutory liquidity ratio for commercial banks, will be introduced in Parliament soon.
Though the Reserve Bank of India decided to reduce the risk weight for home loans between Rs 20 lakh (Rs 2 million) and Rs 30 lakh (Rs 3 million) to 50 per cent, the possible benefit for banks seems to be more than neutralised by 75 basis point rise in cash reserve ratio and increase in the cost of resources, which is linked to yields on government bonds and competition, bankers said.
The Reserve Bank of India on Tuesday hiked the cash reserve ratio by 25 basis points.
State Bank of India Chairman Pratip Chaudhuri says though Friday's cash reserve ratio cut will help ease short-term rates, liquidity may continue to be tight and, hence, a further 25-bp (basis point) cut in CRR can be expected.
Home loans and consumer goods loans are likely to remain high as the Reserve Bank of India kept its key policy rates unchanged during its Monetary Policy review on Tuesday.
Since the burden of 'reserve' tax has fallen primarily on SMEs as they depend on bank finance, a further hike in its Cash Reserve Ratio will definitely hit the SMEs and small savers.
This is the first official data on inflation after RBI announced its mid-term monetary review in which it raised cash reserve ratio by 50 basis points to suck out excess liquidity. While retaining its forecast for inflation at five per cent this fiscal, RBI lowered its objective for the medium-term to three per cent against 4-4.5 per cent as announced in the last quarterly review in July.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) may opt for a 25 per cent cut in the repo rate, to prop sagging demand in the interest rate-sensitive durables sector in the mid-term review of its 2007-08 monetary policy on October 30.The likely reduction in the repo rate would take place despite concerns about inflation, which suggest that interest rates can be left unchanged, banking sources said.
The MSS limit has been raised from Rs 1,50,000 crore (Rs 1,500 billion) in the current financial year. This is the fourth time the government has raised the limit.
Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) is the amount of funds that the banks have to keep with the Reserve Bank of India. If RBI decides to increase the percent of this, the available amount with the banks comes down. RBI is using this method (increase of CRR rate), to drain out the excessive money from the banks.
Bankers have said that lending rates could go up to 0.5 per cent after the Reserve Bank's annual credit policy, which is widely expected to take stringent monetary measures to contain price rise. Many expect the central bank to effect a hike in cash reserve ratio (CRR), the rate of amount all commercial banks need to keep with the Reserve Bank, in its annual credit policy on April 29. Many banks, including SBI, had revised their lending rates downwards early this year.
HDFC Bank on Monday reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 16,811 crore for the September quarter, its maiden quarterly earnings announcement after merging parent HDFC with itself. On a standalone basis, the largest private sector lender reported a net profit of Rs 15,976 crore. In the year-ago period, the net profit of the merged entity would have been Rs 11,162 crore on a consolidated level while the same on a standalone basis would have been Rs 10,606 crore.
For the last two years, the home loan borrower has been facing the brunt of high interest rates
If India sustains long-term growth, you could make good money off the stock market.
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