With the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) having decided on the slashing of short-term lending and borrowing rates - the repo and reverse repo rates - by 25 basis points apiece in its 2009-10 annual monetary policy, banks intend cutting lending rates, thereby making consumer, home, personal and corporate loans cheaper.

While the repo rate has been slashed to 4.75 percent and reverse repo to 3.25 percent, the other key ratios - like the Cash Reserve Ratio and the deposit-percentage that banks keep with the RBI - have remained unchanged.

Mumbai, Apr 21: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) revealed the annual monetary policy here on Tuesday.

According to the report, the short-term lending (repo) rate and borrowing (reverse repo) rates have been reduced by 25 basis points.

The repo rate, thus stands at 3.25 per cent while reverse repo rate stands at 4.75 per cent.

The RBI has said that there is scope for banks to cut lending rates and has asked banks to review their benchmark prime lending rates (BPLR).

A committee has now been formed to review the BPLR system.

Stockholm - Sweden's central bank said Tuesday it was to cut its interest rate by half a percentage point to 0.50 per cent, saying the move was "necessary to dampen the fall in production and employment."

One of the six governors on the Riksbank board, Lars O Svensson, wanted a greater cut to 0.25 per cent, and "entered a reservation," the central bank said in a statement.

The Riksbank governors said Sweden has been hit "hard" by the global financial dowturn.

Manila - Emerging Asia's capital markets are starting to stabilize, but their recovery could be lengthy and hard amid uncertainty over the global economic downturn, an Asian Development Bank (ADB) report said Tuesday.

The Manila-based ADB urged the region's relatively resilient economies to help the equity, bond and currency markets recover as the global crisis ebbs and investor appetite returns, by improving regulation and supervision.

The man who was instrumental in bringing about a turnaround for the Axis Bank is on his way out - that too three months before his tenure officially comes to an end!

And the man is none other than Axis Bank's illustrious Chairman and CEO - Pangal Jayendra Nayak!

Karvy Stock Broking Limited has maintained ‘Buy’ rating on State Bank Of India (SBI) stock to achieve a target of Rs 1350 within 1-2 days.

According to Karvy, day traders can buy the stock at Rs 1305 with a stop loss of Rs 1275.

Shares of the bank, on Monday (April 20), closed at Rs 1295.95 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). Current EPS & P/E ratio stood at 130.14 and 9.59 respectively. The share price has seen a 52-week high of Rs 1840 and a low of Rs 894 on BSE.