India Inc today said it is "happy and delighted" at Reserve Bank keeping the key policy rates unchanged and announcing measures to pump in Rs 48,000 crore into the system.
"We are extremely delighted that RBI has put a halt on interest rate hike and along side, reduced SLR (Statutory Liquidity Ratio) by one percentage point, which is an extremely favourable change," Ficci President Rajan Bharati Mittal said.
He said the measures would help ease the liquidity problem and meet the financing needs of the industry.
Mittal said, "Of late, liquidity has been in deficit, which is what has prompted the RBI to take this important measure. RBI's timely action is indeed welcome."
Industry has been expressing displeasure with the string of policy rate hikes by the RBI to contain inflation.
Terming the RBI's credit policy as "realistic and balanced," Assocham said the central bank has correctly highlighted the prevailing liquidity deficit in the system and tried to resolve the situation.
"(Assocham) fully endorses RBI's view on the play of current inflationary pressures in the country as well as the existing external and domestic economic conditions," chamber's President Dilip Modi said.
CII said it is "happy" that repo and reverse repo rates were not hiked and RBI injected liquidity into the banking system.
"This will help short-term rates to cool down and help maintain stability in our macroeconomic environment," CII Director General Chandrajit Banerjee said.
Another chamber PHDCCI said the today's credit policy is in line with the industry expectations.
It's President Ashok Kajaria hoped that the injection of liquidity in the system gets transmitted as flow of funds to the commercial sector at cost effective rates to support the projects in line and expansion plans by the industry.
The Central bank reduced the Statutory Liquidity Ratio, portion of deposits that banks must invest in government securities, by one percentage point to 24 per cent.
Having increased key short term lending and borrowing rates (repo and reverse repo) for six times in the year, RBI in its mid-quarter credit review refrained from changing them further.
It retained the repo at 6.25 per cent and the reverse repo at 5.25 per cent under the Reserve Bank's liquidity adjustment facility (LAF).
The bank also decided to purchase government paper worth Rs 48,000 crore in the next one month.