Mar 18: 106 new COVID-19 cases, 5 deaths in Karnataka
Bengaluru, Mar 18: Karnataka on Friday recorded 106 fresh COVID-19 cases and five deaths thereby taking the total infected and fatalities to 39,44,432 and 40,033 respectively.
The Department of Health said 154 people were discharged today and the total number of recoveries to 39,02,344. Active cases stood at 2,067.
Bengaluru urban district reported 84 infections.
Other districts saw fresh cases too: six in Dakshina Kannada, three in Chitradurga, and two each in Bengaluru Rural, Chikkamagaluru, Mysuru and Dharwad.
The positivity rate for the day was 0.29 per cent and the case fatality rate was 4.71 per cent.
As many as 36,326 tests were conducted and there were 27,201 RT-PCR tests thereby taking the total to 6.52 crore till now.
There were 62,739 people inoculated. The total vaccinated is 10.24 crore till date, said the department.
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RBI keeps policy rate unchanged amid inflationary pressure
Mumbai (PTI): The Reserve Bank on Wednesday expectedly kept interest rates unchanged amid hopes of a global recovery on the back of ceasefire in the six-week-long US/Israel-Iran conflict.
The policy decision comes as a month and a-half-long West Asia conflict has disrupted energy supplies, shot up crude oil prices and created fiscal and inflationary pressures for import-dependent nations like India.
This is the first monetary policy review after the government announced a fresh inflation target for the RBI last month. The government has asked the RBI to maintain retail inflation at 4 per cent with a margin of 2 per cent on either side for another five years ending March 2031.
Announcing the first bi-monthly monetary policy for the current fiscal, RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra said the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has unanimously decided to retain short-term lending rate or repo rate at 5.25 per cent with a neutral stance.
The rate cut pause comes on the back of the consumer price index (CPI) based headline retail inflation that moved closer to the RBI's medium-term target of 4 per cent at 3.21 per cent in February.
Additionally, the rupee has depreciated by over 4 per cent since the war, which has consequences for pushing up import inflation.
However, the rupee has appreciated by 50 paise to 92.56 against US dollar following announcement of the ceasefire by the US and Iran.
Based on the recommendation of the MPC, the RBI reduced the repo rate by 25 bps each in February, April, and December 2025 and 50 basis points in June amidst easing retail inflation.
India's retail inflation dropped to a historic low of 0.25 per cent in October 2025, marking the lowest level since the Consumer Price Index (CPI) series was introduced.
However, the rupee declined to historic low and crossed 95 against a dollar last month making imports costlier, raising fears of rise in inflation. Rupee touched a record low of 95.21 on March 30, 2026.
