Interest rates to remain at low level for long period of time: RBI Governor

Reserve Bank Governor Sanjay Malhotra on Friday said the key policy rates will remain at low levels for a long period and may go down even further. The statement comes soon after the central bank decided to keep the repo rate unchanged at 5.25 per cent at its bi-monthly monetary policy, and kept the stance netural.

“The policy rates will continue to be at low levels for a long period of time (and) they will go down even further,” Malhotra said in a post-monetary press conference. He, however, added that the decision on rates will be taken by the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC). Since February last year, the RBI has reduced the repo rate by 125 basis points.The governor said policy transmission on the deposit side has been slower and interest rate on fixed deposits will be going down.

Replying to a question on the impact of recent trade deals signed by India, the governor said this, along with other factors, could add up to 20 basis points to the country’s GDP growth.Earlier, the RBI upwardly revised GDP forecast for the first and second quarters of the next fiscal year.

At the press conference, Deputy Governor T Rabi Sankar said the RBI will be able to manage Government borrowing programme comfortably.The Government’s gross borrowing has been pegged at `17.2 lakh crore during the next fiscal year, while net borrowing was `11.73 lakh crore. Malhotra added that T-bills will help manage yield curve and the Government would be able to raise net borrowing of `11.73 lakh crore at a reasonable rate.On the Budget announcement regarding data centres, he said it will bring in a lot of foreign investments.