FM hopes for sustained low rates, inflation under control

Source: PTI

Expecting inflation to remain under control, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday said he is hopeful that the downward move in interest rates will stay. Speaking at a housing market event in Mumbai, he said the Reserve Bank has lowered the rates on four occasions this year, which was a positive step for the real estate sector that was earlier adversely impacted by the hardening of rates. The RBI has cumulatively lowered its policy rate by 1.25% so far in 2015, including by 25 basis points thrice and a better-than-expected 50 basis points in the last monetary policy review. “Interest rate hardening had impacted this (real estate) sector adversely and it was a pre-requisite that we kept inflation under control for a sustained period of time. “Fortunately, that has happened. Therefore, we can also look back with a sense of satisfaction that over the last one year, the RBI has also at least on four occasions taken positive steps as far as the rates are concerned,” Jaitley said. “Hopefully, this movement is there to stay and in the current global price structure, we are able to keep inflation under control,” he added.  

October 31, 2015 | 3:49pm IST.