Having cut policy interest rate just three weeks outside the monetary policy purview, Reserve Bank of India (RBI), much in line with expectation, kept the policy rates unchanged at sixth bi-monthly monetary policy review later. With this, RBI policy repo rate under the liquidity adjustment facility (LAF) unchanged at 7.75% and cash reserve ratio (CRR) of scheduled banks also was steady at 4.0% of net demand and time liabilities (NDTL).
In a bit of surprise, RBI reduced the statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) of scheduled commercial banks by 50 basis points from 22.0% to 21.5% of their NDTL with effect from the fortnight beginning February 7, 2015.