Nirmala Sitharaman bats for rate cut by RBI

Ahead of the RBI's monetary policy review, the government on Saturday "strongly" pushed for interest rate cut saying availability of affordable credit was necessary to boost manufacturing.

"We are working with the the RBI. The RBI has successfully managed the inflation... It is being bit cautious on interest rates. So I hope credit is available in India at an affordable rate because internationally credit is absolutely cheap. "Even if it is not cheap credit, I would strongly push for an affordable credit available for Indian industry only then the revival be (happen)," Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said.

The Minister was speaking during the 90-minute Talkathon. Power, Coal, New and Renewable Energy Minister Piyush Goyal too expressed the hope that with the government taking steps for controlling inflation and fiscal deficit, the RBI could cut interest rates.

The RBI is scheduled to announce its second bi-monthly monetary policy on June 2. The central bank has lowered its policy rate twice since January 2015, but maintained status quo its last policy review on April 7 in the wake of the possibility of unseasonal rains and hailstorm impacting food prices. The repo, the rate at which the RBI lends to banks, stands at 7.5 per cent now.