The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Tuesday kept key interest rates unchanged in the fifth bi-monthly monetary policy review. The RBI status quo was widely anticipated by the market participants.

Repo and reverse rates stood at 6.75% and 5.75% respectively. At the same time, cash reserve ratio (CRR) and statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) retained at 4% and 21.5% respectively.

A Didar Singh, secretary general, FICCI said, "Just about half of the policy repo rate reduction of 125 basis points has been transmitted by the banks till now. We would like banks to pass on the full benefits of the previous rate cuts in the form of lower lending rates for both consumers and investors. This is important for revving up overall demand in the economy, which is still far from being robust. Of particular concern is the demand in the rural areas that has weakened on account of deficient monsoons."

"The policy statement indicates that the RBI is soon expected to finalize the methodology for determining the base rate based on marginal cost of funds and the Government is also examining linking small saving interest rates to market interest rates," added Singh.