Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India]June 8 (ANI): Banks will now be able to issue Rupay prepaid forex cards, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das announced on Monday while reading out the monetary policy statement after three days of deliberations.
This will expand the reach and acceptance of RuPay card globally.
The RBI governor said that RuPay debit and credit cards issued by banks in India are gaining more acceptance abroad.
“It has now been decided to allow issuance of RuPay prepaid forex cards by banks. This will expand payment options for Indians traveling abroad. In addition, RuPay cards will be able to be issued in foreign jurisdictions,” Das said.
Meanwhile, the Monetary Policy Committee of RBI unanimously decided to keep the repo rate unchanged at 6.5 per cent. Repo rate is the interest rate at which RBI lends to other banks.
The sustained decline in inflation (currently at an 18-month low) and the prospect of further decline may have prompted the central bank to apply the brakes on the key interest rate again. Most analysts had expected the RBI to continue to keep the repo rate unchanged.
Inflation has been a concern for many countries, including advanced economies, but India has managed to steer its inflation trajectory quite well. The RBI, in its April meeting, had frozen the repo rate, for the first time in 2023-24.
Barring the April pause, the RBI raised the repo rate by a cumulative 250 basis points to 6.5 per cent from May 2022 in the fight against inflation. Raising interest rates is a monetary policy tool that usually helps suppress demand in the economy, thereby reducing the rate of inflation.
Coming to the GDP outlook, RBI expects India’s 2023-24 GDP growth to be 6.5 per cent, 8.0 per cent in Q1, 6.5 per cent in Q2, 6.0 per cent in Q3 and 5.7 per cent in Q3. RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das, reading out the monetary policy statement today, said the central bank views the risks to these GDP figures as equally balanced. (ANI)
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