Rs 5,000 crore additional liquidity facility to be provided by the National Housing Bank to boost liquidity in housing sector, the RBI said.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday kept interest rates unchanged to help tame inflation that in recent times had surged past 6 per cent mark, and said that the economy is in an extremely weak condition following the pandemic.

Following are the highlights of the monetary policy:

• Policy rate unchanged at 4 per cent, reverse repo at 3.35 per cent
• Loans against gold enhanced to 90 per cent of the value from current 75 per cent to mitigate COVID-19 impact on households
• To continue with the accommodative stance to revive growth
• Supporting economic recovery assumes primacy in the conduct of monetary policy in uncertain global environment
• Sees upside risk to inflation, projects moderation in October-March
• GDP growth to be negative in current fiscal
• Stressed MSME borrowers eligible for loan restructuring if their accounts were classified standard
• Allows lenders to provide window to restructure loans of corporate, individual borrowers to ease COVID-19 impact
• A new resolution window for corporate and personal loans to be framed
• To put in place safeguards for opening of current accounts and overdraft accounts for customers availing credit facilities from multiple banks
• Priority Sector Lending (PSL) to include start-ups
• Increased limits for renewable energy, including solar power, and small and marginal farmers and 'Weaker Sections' under PSL
• To allow a pilot scheme for small value payments in offline mode while safeguarding interest of users, liability protection
• Proposes Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) for digital payments
• Rs 5,000 crore additional liquidity facility to be provided by the National Housing Bank (NHB) to boost liquidity in housing sector
• Rs 5,000 crore liquidity support to NABARD to aid agri sector
• Economic activity had started to recover, but surge in infection has forced imposition of lockdowns
• Monetary Policy Committee conscious of primary mandate to achieve inflation target of 4 per cent within a band of +/- 2 per cent

Photograph: Shailesh Andrade/Reuters