Bank rates tumble, stimulus this week

While the UPA government’s top economy managers hinted on Monday that a second set of monetary and fiscal stimulus measures could come within days, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh held an hour-long meeting at his residence with RBI governor Duvvuri Subbarao. Though Subbarao remained tight-lipped about what transpired in the meeting, the key issue was the 150- to 200-basis point cut in key bank rates proposed by the Centre to ease access to credit and pre-empt a further slowdown in economic activity.