Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman glared at the banks, said – taking loan is very expensive, reduce the interest rate

New Delhi: Union 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 that taking loan is really too much. At a time when we want to promote industry and also increase capacity building, we have to make interest rates affordable.

Let us tell you that the interest rate or repo rate of Reserve Bank of India i.e. RBI is currently 6.50%. RBI has kept the interest rate stable in the last 10 monetary policy meetings. The Central Bank had reduced its rating to neutral in the October monetary policy meeting.

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Piyush Goyal had also talked about cutting rates.

It is noteworthy that before this, Union Minister Piyush Goyal had also said last week that RBI should cut interest rates. On this, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das had said that he will reserve his comment for the upcoming monetary policy meeting in December. Goyal and Das had said this on the occasion of Global Leadership Summit organized by a TV channel.

What did the Finance Minister say on inflation?

Regarding inflation, Sitharaman said that due to three items, there is pressure on inflation figures. He said, 'From time to time, the supply of some food items in India may not be sufficient. So, until you get to the root of the problem, there will be problems with commodities like tomatoes, onions and potatoes from time to time.

Retail inflation was 6.2% in October

Retail inflation has reached a 14-month high of 6.2% in October, whereas it was 5.5% in the previous month. Food inflation has seen a rapid increase in the prices of vegetables. Inflation has gone above the range of 6% for the first time in the last one year.