Month: August 2024

Governor Shaktikanta Das of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) stated on Thursday that the MPC (Monetary Policy Committee) of the RBI had agreed to maintain the expected lines of policy by maintaining the key interest rate and stance. Additionally, Das’s MPC maintains the monetary policy’s “withdrawal of accommodation” approach. Das made the announcement of the policy decision, saying, “MPC judged that it is important for monetary policy to stay the course while maintaining close vigil on risks.”

In a 4:2 vote, the Committee—which is composed of three RBI members and three outside members—decided to keep the repo rate at 6.50 percent for the ninth consecutive meeting, which took place from August 5–7.


According to the RBI, Dr. Ashima Goyal and Prof. Jayanth R. Varma voted to lower the policy repo rate by 25 basis points, while the remaining four committee members supported maintaining the status quo.

Inflation will be in focus once again and Das said that high food price are likely to have continued impact in July as well. He further noted that food inflation has weight of 46 percent cent on headline inflation and that it cannot be ‘ignored’. The governor cannot and should not become complacent because core inflation has fallen considerably. India’s CPI in June stood at 5.1 per cent on the back of surge in vegetable prices. The CPI accelerated for the first time in five months, data showed in July.

 Key Highlights of August RBI MPC Meet 

MPC voted to keep repo rate unchanged at 6.50 per cent. standing deposit facility (SDF) rate remains unchanged at 6.25 percent, as do the marginal standing facility (MSF) rate and the Bank Rate at 6.75 per cent. 

The MPC also decided to continue withdrawing of accommodation stance. 

Das said that the MPC has decided to focus on inflation and support price stability to ensure growth. 

The real GDP forecast for FY25 was kept unchanged at 7.2% with Q1 slightly reduced to 7.2 per cent; Q2 at 7.2 per cent; Q3 at 7.3 per cent; and Q4 at 7.2 per cent 

The real GDP for Q1FY26 is also projected at 7.2 per cent 

Das said that the moderation in Q1FY25 growth forecast is due to updated information on certain high frequency indicators. 

The RBI MPC projected inflation forecast for FY25 unchanged at 4.5 per cent, while it stands at 4.4 per cent for FY26. 

Inflation for Q2 has been hiked to 4.4 per cent from 3.8 per cent; Q3 projection raised to 4.7 per cent from 4.6 per cent and finally Q4 projection eased to 4.3 per cent from 4.5 per cent. 

MPC stays resolute in its commitment to aligning inflation to the 4 per cent target on a durable basis, RBI Guv said. 

India’s current account deficit (CAD) moderated to 0.7 per cent of GDP in 2023-24 from 2.0 per cent of GDP in 2022-23 due to a lower trade deficit and robust servicesand remittances receipts.

 A degree of relief is expected due to healthy kharif sowing and picking up southwest monsoon, Das noted. 

The RBI Governor also laid emphasis on the need to ‘carefully monitor’ mobile tariffs and milk prices. 

The apex bank will continue to be nimble and flexible in liquidity management operations, says Shaktikanta Das. 

RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das also expressed concern over rising disbursals of top-up home loans and has asked lenders to take remedial action. 

India’s forex reserves reached a new high of $675 billion as of August 2. 

The RBI expressed its concerns regarding the third-party outsourcing of technological requirements for banks and financial institutions in light of the global Microsoft outage that happened last month. 

The governor pressed for stakeholders in the fintech sector to work towards eliminating any possibility of cyber outages in the future. 

A focus on mobilizing household savings through innovative products is recommended 

Despite moderated credit growth in some sectors, personal loans are still growing rapidly, necessitating careful monitoring of leverage and reassessment of underwriting standards. 

RBI Guv noted that rapid growth in home equity and top-up loans, especially on collateralized loans, with some entities not adhering to regulatory guidelines, could lead to unproductive or speculative fund use. The RBI has advised a review and necessary corrective actions. 

Key announcements 

The RBI has proposed to create a public repository of digital lending apps to help prevent unauthorised lenders. 

UPI tax payment limit has been hiked from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 5 lakh per transaction.

It has also been proposed to introduce continuous check clearing. Steps to speed up the clearance of checks to a few hours will be taken, Das said. 

RBI has decided to increase the frequency of credit information reporting by credit institutions (CIs) to credit information companies (CICs) from a monthly basis to a fortnightly basis or at such shorter intervals as agreed upon. 

RBI proposed to introduce “Delegated Payments” in UPI, which would allow an individual to set a UPI transaction limit for another individual (secondary user) on the primary user’s bank account

Monday saw a roughly 13% decline in Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 stock index, continuing sell-offs that rattled global markets last week as concerns about the health of the US economy grew.


The Nikkei was down more than 4,500 points at 31,341.29 close to Tokyo closing time. The afternoon selling intensified, causing an 11.5% decline in the market’s overall TOPIX index.


Financial markets have been rocked by a report indicating that hiring by U.S. firms slowed last month by a significant amount, surpassing the expectations that had driven the Nikkei to record highs of over 42,000 in recent weeks.


The Nikkei 225 is on track for its worst two-day slump ever after falling 5.8% on Friday. A drop of 3,836 points, or 14.9%, on a day known as “Black Monday” in October 1987 was its worst single-day performance. Tokyo stock prices have decreased following the Bank of Japan’s Wednesday increase in its benchmark interest rate. Now, the Nikkei is 4.3% lower than it was a year ago.

A government source indicated on Thursday, one day after Infosys was hit with a $4 billion tax demand, that Indian tax officials may soon send warnings to more large IT services companies as part of an investigation into suspected tax evasion connected to work done by their overseas headquarters. The government demanded taxes from Infosys, the country’s second-largest computer services company, amounting to nearly all of its revenue for the quarter that concluded on June 30. This is the government’s highest-ever demand for taxes. Infosys is accused of dodging taxes. Despite receiving “pre-show cause” warnings from the tax authorities, Infosys said late on Wednesday that it thought all applicable taxes had been paid. In a statement, the business said it had fulfilled its obligations and complied with federal and state

However, tax officials aren’t limiting Infosys ability to handle their inquiries. A senior tax official with knowledge of the situation told Reuters, “This is an industry-wide issue,” and that warnings were probably going to be sent to some other IT companies. The individual was not authorized to speak to the media, so he spoke on the condition of anonymity. An email for comment was not immediately answered by India’s finance minister. Experts predicted that other tax letters for the same purported infractions would probably be forthcoming. According to Rajat Mohan, director of accounting company MOORE Singhi, “issuing such a substantial show-cause notice is likely to set a precedent, leading to similar notices being issued to other multinational companies, particularly in the IT sector.”

Among other things, the foreign offices handle projects for Indian IT companies and offer services to global customers. On Thursday, Infosys’s stock fell 1% to 1,868.25 rupees. A lengthy and drawn-out battle may lie ahead for Infosys, according to several tax specialists. “Going to court and getting a stay on these proceedings is the pragmatic solution for Infosys,” stated Rastogi Chambers founder Abhishek Rastogi. He further stated that since the services were rendered outside of India, there should be no tax liability for the business. The goods and services tax administration in India has served over 1,000 notifications to businesses in the past year, including Ultratech Cement, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, and the Life Insurance Corporation of India. Online gambling companies have also received letters from tax authorities seeking payment of around 1 trillion rupees in taxes that they have allegedly avoided. Businesses have contested these requests in courts and tribunals.