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Inflation causes India's RBI & US' Fed to increase interest rates

07 May '22
2 min read
Pic: Shutterstock
Pic: Shutterstock

US Federal Reserve (Fed) has steeply raised interest rates and decided to start shrinking its huge $9-trillion balance sheet comprising primarily of treasury and mortgage bonds, opting for an aggressively tightening monetary policy to control rising inflation. The Fed’s Federal Open Market Committee raised the benchmark rate by a half percentage point.

Fed chair Jerome Powell had told a news conference that further large rate hikes are coming. He said additional half-point increases in the Fed’s key rate “should be on the table in the next couple of meetings” in June and July.

“A 75-basis-point hike is not something that the committee is actively considering,” he was quoted as saying by US media reports.

Back in India, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has increased the policy repo rate under liquidity adjustment facility (LAF) by 40 basis points (bps) to 4.40 per cent. Consequently, standing deposit facility (SDF) rate now stands at 4.15 per cent and marginal standing facility (MSF) rate and Bank Rate at 4.65 per cent.

The decision to raise the repo rate was taken by the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the RBI at its meeting recently on the basis of an assessment of the current and evolving macroeconomic situation. The MPC also decided to remain accommodative while focusing on withdrawal of accommodation to ensure that inflation remains within the target going forward, while supporting growth.

ALCHEMPro News Desk (KD)

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