indias central bank on thursday kept interest rates on hold for its secondstraight meeting citing easing inflation pressures but warned about an uncertain global outlook the benchmark repurchase rate was left at 650 percent by the reserve bank of india rbi bank governor shaktikanta das announced in a webcast in line with expectations the monetary policy committee decided to remain focused on withdrawal of accommodation to ensure that inflation progressively aligns with the target while supporting growth das said headline inflation still remains above the target and being within the tolerance band is not enough our goal is to achieve the target of 40 percent going forward inflation hit a peak of 779 percent in april last year well above the rbis target range of 2060 percent before slowly easing to 47 percent in april indias economy expanded 61 percent in januarymarch the final quarter of the fiscal year to take annual growth to 72 percent the south asian nation of 14 billion people which recently overtook china to become the worlds mostpopulous country is one of the fastestgrowing major economies central banks around the world including the rbi have rapidly hiked borrowing costs to tame consumer prices made worse by russias invasion of ukraine despite easing inflation das cautioned that a key risk factor was the warming el nino weather phenomenon which could weaken the monsoon and lift crop prices stoking inflation agriculture is a key cornerstone of indias economy and the annual monsoon is crucial to its food output close and continued vigil on the evolving inflation outlook is absolutely necessary especially as the monsoon outlook and the impact of el nino remains uncertain das said geopolitical tensions uncertainties around the monsoon and international commodity prices especially sugar and rice and also crude oil and the volatility in global financial markets pose upside risks to inflation headline inflation was projected to hit 51 percent in the 202324 financial year he added