05.12.201905:33:00UTC+00India Leaves Policy Rates Unchanged

India's central bank maintained its interest rates on Thursday after lowering it five times this year.

The Monetary Policy Committee of the Reserve Bank of India, headed by Shaktikanta Das, unanimously decided to leave the repo rate unchanged at 5.15 percent and the reverse repo at 4.90 percent.

The bank was widely expected to ease the policy rates by quarter points. The central bank has so far lowered its key rate five times this year by a cumulative 135 basis points.

The bank said there is monetary policy space for future action. "However, given the evolving growth-inflation dynamics, the MPC felt it appropriate to take a pause at this juncture," the bank said.

The bank lowered sharply its real GDP growth outlook for 2019-20 to 5 percent from 6.1 percent.

The bank cited a delay in revival of domestic demand, a further slowdown in global economic activity and geo-political tensions as downside risks.

Meanwhile, the CPI inflation projection was revised upwards to 5.1-4.7 percent for the second half of the financial year 2019-20 and 4.0-3.8 percent for the first half of FY 2020-21.