Leading bankers today termed the Reserve Bank's decision to keep all key policy rates unchanged as "on expected lines".
They also pointed out that the 75 basis points reduction in the cash reserve ratio last Friday was the main reason for not expecting anything major from today's mid-quarter review.
"The review was on expected lines and I am not disappointed by the Governor leaving all the policy tools unchanged. The RBI has done its bit last week with a 75 bps CRR cut," State Bank chairman Pratip Chaudhuri told PTI.
Earlier in the day, Reserve Bank left all the key policy tools unchanged at the mid-quarter review, citing rising inflationary pressures, widening fiscal slippages and the rising oil prices as the main reason for the cautious stance.
Indian Banks Association Chairman and Bank of Baroda Head MD Mallya also said he was not surprised by the move, and probably the governor looked at the overall situation and especially the forthcoming Budget to take a cue.
"The move is consistent with anti-inflationary stance of the RBI in the past two years and more," Mallya said.
MV Tanksale of Central Bank of India went a step further and defended the policy stance saying it was fully on expected lines "as the basic concern of liquidity was addressed last week. There was no room for a repo rate cut too as inflation menace has started looking worrying again".
"As a banker I don't see any rate cut even in the April policy if three main concerns of inflation, fiscal deficit and rising oil prices are addressed. There is no point in predicting that there will be cut or not," Thanksale told PTI.
