RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das on Thursday announced that the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has decided with a majority of 4:2 members to keep the policy rate unchanged at 6.5%.

Members decided to remain focussed on withdrawal of accomodation to ensure inflation progressively aligns to the target while supporting growth.

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“Consequently, the standing deposit facility (SDF) rate remains at 6.25%, and the marginal standing facility (MSF) rate and the bank rate at 6.75%,” he said.

The Governor further said the PMI services stood strong of 60.3 in July and is above 60 for 7 consecutive months which indicates robust expansion of services.

“Healthy balance sheets of banks and corporates, thrust on capex by the government and visible signs of pickup in private investments could drive investment activity in the current year,” the Governor believed.

Governor Das said the real GDP growth for the Financial Year 2024-25 is projected at 7.2%.

Real gdp growth for Q1 is projected at 7.1%, Q2 at 7.2%, Q3 at 7.3% and Q4 at 7.2%, the risks are evenly balanced, he said.

Real GDP growth for Q1 FY25-26 is projected at 7.2%.

The CPI Inflation for FY24-25 is projected at 4.5%.

The Governor further said the CPI Inflation for Q2 is projected at 4.4%, Q3 at 4.7% and Q4 at 4.3%.

CPI inflation for Q1 FY25-26 is projected at 4.4, he added.

After remaining steady at 4.8% during April and May, inflation increased to 5.1% in June, the Governor said.

He said the domestic economic activity continues to be resilient. On the supply side, steady progress in southwest monsoon, higher cumulative Kharif sowing and improving reservoir levels auger very well for Kharif output.

Manufacturing activity continues to gain ground on the back of improving domestic demand, he added.

The Governor said recently there was unprecedented outage globally which affected businesses in many countries.

In this background its necessary that banks and financial institutions build appropriate risk management frameworks in their IT, cybersecurity and third party outsourcing arrangements to maintain operational resilience, he added.