The garment exporters in the country who were looking forward to reduction in interest rates in the monetary policy review on Tuesday said the RBI has failed to give them any relief and they would find it difficult to compete with neighbouring countries where interest rates are lower.
Apparel Export Promotion Council said in a release that today’s credit policy has not addressed the issue of reduction in interest rate nor the RBI has announced interest subvention for knitwear and garment exporters.
AEPC Chairman Mr A Sakthivel said the prevailing interest rates are very high and posing a threat to the country’s competitiveness especially with regard to countries like Bangladesh, Vietnam, Cambodia among others where interest rates are at around 6 per cent or less.
The Reserve Bank today cut cash reserve ratio by 0.50 percentage point to 5.5 per cent as part of the monetary policy review and kept interest rates unchanged.