With retail inflation surprising on the upside, the six-member monetary policy committee (MPC) of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is expected to increase the repo rate by 35-50 basis points (bps) in the review scheduled for September 28-30. According to economists, the central bank will continue to focus on bringing inflation down even though economic growth has remained sluggish. Data released by the government on Monday showed that the consumer price index (CPI)-based inflation increased by 7 per cent year-on-year (YoY) in August, thus, staying above the upper tolerance limit of the central bank for all the eight months of 2022.
Now, non-banking finance companies can give a loan up to 75 per cent of the gold value; the previous limit was 60 per cent.
India's services sector growth eased to a three-month low in June but service providers continued to signal positive demand trends, which resulted in a stronger increase in new business volumes and further job creation, a monthly survey said on Wednesday. The seasonally adjusted S&P Global India Services PMI Business Activity Index fell from 61.2 in May to 58.5 in June. Despite falling from May, the latest figure was consistent with a sharp pace of growth.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday said that retail inflation is expected to remain close to 5 per cent
Retail inflation softened to 6.71 per cent in July due to moderation in food prices but remained above the Reserve Bank's comfort level of 6 per cent for the seventh consecutive month. With retail inflation continuing to remain high despite a fall in prices of vegetables and edible oils, among other commodities in July, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) might go for another rate hike in September. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) based retail inflation was at 7.01 per cent in June and 5.59 per cent in July 2021. It was above 7 per cent from April to June this fiscal.
DBS called Rajan's decision not to seek an extension as a 'negative surprise'.
Tuesday's policy announcement had a regulatory and development component.
The Indian equity market is likely to remain under pressure and rangebound over the next few months. This comes as global central banks, led by the US Federal Reserve look at a possibility of hiking rates aggressively to tame inflation. Back home, the Reserve Bank of India, too, remains data dependent in its endeavour to keep inflation in check and pursue an aggressive monetary policy stance.
The Reserve Bank of India's directive on Wednesday came on its prior advice to banks in 2009 to make bank branches and ATMs accessible to people with disabilities and make at least one-third of the new ATMs installed as talking ATMs with Braille keypads.
A user just needs to download any app floated by such fraudsters and apply for instant loans. These apps are mainly concentrated on Google Play considering the reach and popularity of Android systems.
In a double delight, retail inflation eased to a one-year low of 5.72 per cent - staying below the upper tolerance limit for two months in a row, while factory output rose sharply to 7.2 per cent on the back of healthy growth in manufacturing. The retail inflation numbers based on Consumer Price Index (CPI) will provide some room for the Reserve Bank to further moderate the quantum of hike in key interest rate or even press a pause button. The RBI has been on a rate hiking spree since May 2022 in its bid to tame inflation, having raised the repo rate by a cumulative 225 basis points (bps).
Rajan's exit will neither affect the RBI's de facto independence nor its working.
The Central Bureau of Investigation on Monday told a special court here that former ICICI Bank CEO and MD Chanda Kochhar misappropriated the lender's funds for personal use. The probe agency, represented by special public prosecutor A Limosin, made this argument while urging the special court to take cognizance of the chargesheet filed against Chanda Kochhar, her husband Deepak Kochhar and others in a case pertaining to cheating and irregularities in sanctioning of loans to Videocon Group firms. Chanda Kochhar was MD and CEO of ICICI Bank between May 2009 and January 2019 in which capacity she was entrusted with the Bank's funds, the CBI told court.
A senior official with Muthoot Finance said the group would also want to apply for a universal licence.
One thing is for sure: It smacks of the regulator's lack of confidence in the bank's board, points out Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Subir Gokarn, Executive Director and Chief Economist at Standard & Poor's Asia Pacific, is heading the shortlist of candidates for the Reserve Bank of India Deputy Governor's post. Gokarn is also a Business Standard columnist.
The RBI panel has also recommended a government-sponsored 'fund of funds' of Rs 10,000 crore to support the venture capital and private equity firms investing in the MSME sector.
The Reserve Bank of India is in favour of a cautious and gradual approach to financial sector reforms rather than a big-bang approach, as advocated by the Percy Mistry Committee report on making Mumbai an international financial centre.
Voting for the 2014 general elections will begin in April and it is expected Budget 2014-15 will be presented in June.
Headed by Urjit Patel, MPC for the fourth straight time kept the repo rate unchanged, at which it lends to the banks, at 6.25 per cent. The reverse repo, at which RBI borrows, will be 6 per cent.
The discussion paper is released at a time when the central bank is sifting through 26 applications seeking an entry into the fray.
As all regulators are part of it, individuals don't need to worry about approaching the right authority
The central bank had revised its inflation forecast significantly downward in the last policy
Deficits could come under more pressure in coming years as states implement their own Pay Commissions.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has offered some leeway to banks for early detection and resolution of bad loans. Under the new regime kicking off from April 1, lenders can finance 50 per cent of the outstanding loan value, RBI said in Framework for Revitalising Distressed Assets in the Economy, released on Thursday.
RBI data on Dec 2014 showed 1.05 million PoS machines in the country.
The parliamentary standing committee on finance has proposed a Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) co-ordination mechanism to monitor foreign investments in the stock market.
Experts interviewed CMDs of nine public sector banks on Friday and Kamath is believed to be in the reckoning
Search panel to shortlist candidates soon.
Kaushik Basu, whose stint at the World Bank ends on July 31, was being looked at as a serious contender, the sources said
RBI may revise remuneration for banks.
The Kochhars were arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) last Friday. Dhoot was arrested on Monday. The three were produced before special judge S H Gwalani at the end of their earlier remand on Thursday.
Raghuram Rajan said a six-member monetary policy committee will decide on interest rates.
The Congress vice president took to twitter to lash out at Modi after the All India Congress Committee demanded rollback of the restriction under which an amount over Rs 5000 in scrapped currency can be deposited only once per account till December 30.
A special Central Bureau of Investigation court here on Wednesday extended till December 29 the CBI custody of former ICICI Bank CEO and MD Chanda Kochhar, her husband Deepak Kochhar and Videocon group founder Venugopal Dhoot in connection with a loan fraud case. The probe agency arrested Kochhars last Friday after questioning them briefly. Dhoot was arrested on Monday.
Why can't we have a sunset clause for the ARCs, which is a global norm? questions Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
New-generation private sector banks such as ICICI, HDFC, Axis, Kotak etcetera owe their existence to the recommendations of the first Narasimham Committee.
The wholesale price-based inflation eased to a 29-month low of 1.34 per cent in March on easing prices of manufactured products and fuel items, even though food articles turned expensive.
In twin blows to Indian economic revival, higher food prices drove retail inflation to a five-month high of 7.4 per cent while factory output fell for the first time in 18 months. The second consecutive month of rise in consumer price index (CPI)-based inflation will add to the pressure on the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to again raise interest rates to tame high prices. Inflation has been above the targeted zone for the ninth month in a row and as per statute, the RBI will now have to explain to the government in writing why it failed to keep prices below 6 per cent.
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