India’s central bank cuts key lending rate to 6 percent

India’s central bank cut its key interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point on Wednesday, raising hopes of lower borrowing costs for households as inflation ebbs.

The announcement by the Reserve Bank of India reduced to 6 percent its repo rate, the interest rate it charges on lending to commercial banks.

India’s inflation rate declined to a record low of 1.54 percent in June, while the annual rate of growth in factory output fell to 1.7 percent in May from 8 percent in the same month a year earlier.

India's central bank cuts key lending rate to 6.5 percent

India's central bank on Tuesday cut its key interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point and hinted at other measures to boost liquidity and spur economic growth.

The Reserve Bank of India reduced its repo rate to 6.5 percent. This is the rate at which the central bank lends to commercial banks.

The cut takes interest rates to their lowest level in five years and aims to boost the economy by lowering the cost of borrowing. It also comes as inflation has eased.

US rate hike ends wait, but not uncertainty for Asia

The Federal Reserve's rate hike was welcomed in Asia as a sign of strength in the U.S., one of the region's biggest export markets. But it could complicate Chinese efforts to avoid a sharper economic slowdown and keep the yuan steady.

The U.S. central bank on Wednesday raised the Federal Funds Rate by a quarter percentage point, the first such increase in nearly a decade. The decision ended a long period of uncertainty about when the Fed would begin winding down the easy money deployed to help heal the economic damage of the 2008 financial crisis.