New Delhi: The RBI announced an extension of loan moratorium by another three months to ease financial stress.  The governor Shaktikanta Das held a press conference today and announced a slew of measures in order to control the economic loss of the country caused due to the pandemic and the lockdown. The loan moratorium measure was announced in March after the lockdown was declared by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It will now be extended till August this year.

“ In view of the extension of lockdown and continuing disruptions on account of Covid-19 the above measures are being further extended by another three months from June 1 to August 31 taking the total period applicability of the measures to six months i.e from March 1 to August 31, 2020,” said Das during the conference.

This step taken by the central bank comes as a relief to many borrowers whose income may have been severely hit due to the pandemic and the resulting lockdown.

During the conference today the RBI announced other steps to mitigate the financial losses. These include a Repo rate cut by 40 bps to 4 percent and the reverse repo rate to 3.35 percent. Some steps have been announced for exporters and importers to help them tide over the period. Das has also said that the global macroeconomic indicators are grim and that the GDP growth of India may remain in the negative. This is because the demand and production both globally and in the domestic market have been impacted severely due to the coronavirus pandemic.

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