India’s banking regulator Reserve bank of India (RBI) has cut rates across the board ahead of its quarterly review in shceduled later in January. The bank lowered both its policy rates repo and reverse repo by 100 bps while the reserve ratio CRR has been cut by 50 bps.
CRR cut will release about Rs 20,000 crore into the system, signalling the shifting committment of RBI from demand management to halting downside of growth. New repo and reverse repo rates will stand at 4% abd 5.5% respectively.
In a related development, State Bank of Travancore (SBT) has decided to revise the benchmark PLR from 13.25% to 12.75% with effect from January 01, 2009, the bank stated in its announcement made to the FreePress.