Post-lockdown, India’s infection growth rate has slowed down
- The Union Health Ministry on Friday said the doubling rate of positive COVID-19 cases was now down to 6.2 days, compared to 3 before the nationwide lockdown that began on March 25.
- The ICMR said there was no evidence suggesting that novel coronavirus is showing any signs of mutation.
India says IMF liquidity boost may be costly
- Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Thursday the country could not support a general allocation of new Special Drawing Rights (SDR) by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) because it might not be effective in easing COVID-19 driven financial pressures
- Ms. Sitharaman said that she also was concerned that such a major liquidity injection could produce potentially costly sideeffects if countries used the funds for “extraneous” purposes.
Salaried borrowers continue EMIs, ignore moratorium offer
- The move was aimed at addressing the liquidity crunch faced by businesses and individuals due to the economic lockdown imposed to help contain the COVID-19 pandemic
- “About 85-90% of businesses in the MSME sector have availed of the loan moratorium,”
RBI to pump in ₹1 lakh crore
- The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday announced a slew of liquidity measures to ease financial stress and increase credit flows, while indicating that more room was likely to emerge for reduction in interest rates as inflation softens.
- The NBFCs(non banking finance companies) have experienced liquidity shortage since banks have not offered them any moratorium for repayment, while these entities have had to extend the moratorium option to their customers.
- The RBI will extend another ₹50,000 crore to refinancing agencies like Nabard, Sidbi and National Housing Bank.
Moratorium period will not count for NPA purpose: RBI
- The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has prescribed higher provisioning norms for all loans where banks have extended moratorium to their customers, by 10%, spread over two quarters — January-March and April-June.