India's central bank cuts repo rate to 6.25 pct for 1st time in nearly 5 years

India's central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), on Friday announced a reduction in repo rate by 25 basis points to 6.25 percent.

The repo rate is the rate at which the central bank lends money to commercial banks in the event of a shortfall of funds.

The move has been undertaken to boost the economy.

RBI Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) last reduced the repo rate in May 2020 and kept it unchanged in the last 11 policy meetings.

After assessing the current and evolving macroeconomic situation, the MPC unanimously decided to reduce the policy repo rate under the liquidity adjustment facility by 25 basis points to 6.25 percent with immediate effect, said a statement issued by the RBI.

Consequently, the standing deposit facility rate shall stand adjusted to 6.00 percent and the marginal standing facility rate and the Bank Rate to 6.50 percent. The MPC also decided to continue with the neutral monetary policy stance and remain unambiguously focused on a durable alignment of inflation with the target, while supporting growth.

According to the RBI, these decisions are in consonance with the objective of achieving the medium-term target for consumer price index inflation of 4 percent within a band of plus and minus 2 percent, while supporting growth.

According to the National Statistical Office (NSO), India's GDP is estimated to grow at 6.4 percent for the financial year 2024-25, compared to the initially-projected 7.2 percent in October last year.

India's central bank cuts repo rate to 6.25 pct for 1st time in nearly 5 years

The death toll from a landfill collapse in the central Philippine city of Cebu has risen to eight by Monday morning as search and rescue operations continued for another 28 missing people.

The landfill collapse occurred on Thursday as dozens of sanitation workers were working at the site. The disaster has already caused injuries of 18 people.

Family members of the missing people said the rescue progress is slow, and the hope for the survival of their loved ones is fading.

"For me, maybe I’ve accepted the worst result already because the garbage is poisonous and yesterday, it was raining very hard the whole day. Maybe they’ve been poisoned. For us, alive or dead, I hope we can get their bodies out of the garbage rubble," said Maria Kareen Rubin, a family member of a victim.

Families have set up camps on high ground near the landfill, awaiting news of their relatives. Some people at the site said cries for help could still be heard hours after the landfill collapsed, but these voices gradually faded away.

Bienvenido Ranido, who lost his wife in the disaster, said he can't believe all that happened.

"After they gave my wife oxygen, my kids and I were expecting that she would be saved that night because she was still alive. But the night came and till the next morning, they didn't manage to save her," he said.

Death toll in central Philippine landfill collapse rises to eight