Home loan rates: State Bank of India (SBI), India’s largest lender, has recently announced a reduction in its External Benchmark-based Lending Rate (EBLR) and Repo Linked Lending Rate (RLLR) for various loans, including home loans. The revised lending rates will come into effect on February 15, 2025. This decision follows the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) … Read more
Dinesh Kumar Khara, Former Chairman, SBI, says where banks have primarily adopted the repo rate as their external benchmark, there will be the quickest transmission of changes. However, they may not be able to adjust their deposit rates immediately, as such adjustments typically occur with a delay. In contrast, if the loan portfolio is linked … Read more
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has cut the repo rate by 25 basis points to 6.25%—the first reduction in nearly five years. While this move benefits borrowers, it also signals a decline in fixed deposit (FD) interest rates, posing a challenge for investors, especially senior citizens who rely on FD income. With banks expected … Read more
Upasna Bhardwaj, Chief Economist, Kotak Mahindra Bank, says she is looking at the rupee shifting towards 87-87.50 range against the dollar. She is generally pessimistic about the GDP figures for the full year. Bhardwaj estimates it to be 6.1% for FY25, and next year also brings many uncertainties. Kotak Bank expects the number to be … Read more
Bank stocks rallied up to 2% on Friday after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) slashed the cash reserve ratio (CRR) by 50 basis points to 4%. The measure will ease liquidity stress by releasing Rs 1.16 lakh crore in the banking system. Among the PSU bank stocks, UCO Bank led the rally, rising 2.8% … Read more
FD rates: Ahead of the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) six-member Monetary Policy Committee’s (MPC) meeting this week, some of the public and private banks have revised their fixed deposit rates. The Repo Rate established by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) plays a significant role in influencing Fixed Deposit (FD) rates. It dictates the … Read more
The government needs to expedite its work on revised CPI and may help the RBI manage inflation expectations better as the published indices are in divergences with market prices as the current consumer price index- CPI base of 2012. The current indices are derived from the consumption expenditure survey (CES) conducted during 2011-2012, long before … Read more
In June 2022, when Dalal Street witnessed a significant bear-run as stock market indices – Sensex and Nifty – reached their 52-week lows and foreign portfolio investors continued their selling spree, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman dubbed India’s retail investors as ‘shock absorbers.’ In the Data Point published on December 29, 2022, The Hindu explained how … Read more
The November inflation print of 5.88 per cent provides impetus to end the rate hike cycle, economists at the country’s largest lender SBI said on Monday. This came hours after official data showed that consumer price index (CPI) based inflation cooled to 5.88 per cent in November, the first time that it has come within … Read more
RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das heads into his second term with increasing pressure to pivot back toward battling inflation and winding down his crisis-era policy settings. Having kept the main interest rates steady on Wednesday, Das starts his next three-year term Dec. 11 with some in the bank already calling for unwinding the ultra-loose policies. One … Read more