Mumbai, 7/12: The Reserve Bank of India raised its key lending rate by a more modest 35 basis points to 6.25 per cent on Wednesday, citing slowing inflation in Asia’s third-largest economy.
The central bank’s move was in line with what most economists expected and came after it implemented three consecutive 50-basis-point hikes to fight persistent pricing pressures.
The RBI has raised interest rates by 2.25 percentage points since May and the latest repo rate of 6.25 per cent is at the highest level it has been in four years, pushing up the EMIs of existing loan holders and dimming the prospects of seekers of floating-interest loans as they are bound to pay a higher rate of interest on the same amount of principal with each rate-hike.