On the basis of an assessment of the current and evolving macroeconomic situation at its meeting, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) decided to keep the policy repo rate under the liquidity adjustment facility (LAF) unchanged at 6.0 per cent.
Consequently, the reverse repo rate under the LAF remains at 5.75 per cent, and the marginal standing facility (MSF) rate and the Bank Rate at 6.25 per cent.
The decision of the MPC is consistent with a neutral stance of monetary policy in consonance with the objective of achieving the medium-term target for consumer price index (CPI) inflation of 4 per cent within a band of +/- 2 per cent, while supporting growth.
The report of the Working Group on Hedging of Commodity Price Risk by Residents (Chairman: Shri Chandan Sinha) was also released by the Reserve Bank. The major recommendations of the Group include the creation of a ‘Positive List’ of commodities that can be hedged, and enabling inventory hedging, price fix hedging as well as hedging of the currency risk resulting from overseas commodity derivatives.