Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that banks need to reduce interest rates on loans. Nirmala Sitharaman said this at the SBI Banking and Economics Conclave 2024 on Monday (November 18). Nirmala Sitharaman said, ‘The borrowing cost is really high. At a time when we want to promote industry and also increase capacity building, we have to make interest rates affordable.’ The interest rate or repo rate of the Reserve Bank of India i.e. RBI is currently 6.50%. RBI has kept the interest rate stable for the last 10 monetary policy meetings. The central bank had made its rating neutral in the October monetary policy meeting. RBI should cut interest rates: Piyush Goyal Union Minister Piyush Goyal also said last week that RBI should cut interest rates. On this, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das had said that he would keep his comment ‘reserve’ for the upcoming monetary policy meeting in December. Goyal and Das said this on the occasion of Global Leadership Summit organized by a TV channel. Inflation figures are under pressure Regarding inflation, Sitharaman said that inflation figures are under pressure due to three items. She said, ‘In India, from time to time, the supply of some food commodities is not sufficient. Therefore, until you do not reach the root of this problem, the problem of commodities like tomatoes, onions and potatoes will persist from time to time.’ Retail inflation reached 6.2% in October Retail inflation reached a 14-month high of 6.2% in October, while it was 5.5% in the previous month. Food inflation has seen a rise due to the rapid increase in vegetable prices. Inflation has gone above the 6% mark for the first time in the last one year.
