IMPORTATNT TERMS

Repo (Repurchase) Rate
Repo rate is the rate at which banks borrow funds from the RBI to meet the gap between the demands they are facing for money (loans) and how much they have on hand to lend. If the RBI wants to make it more expensive for the banks to borrow money, it increases the repo rate; similarly, if it wants to make it cheaper for banks to borrow money, it reduces the repo rate.

Reverse Repo Rate
This is the exact opposite of repo rate. The rate at which RBI borrows money from the banks (or banks lend money to the RBI) is termed the reverse repo rate. The RBI uses this tool when it feels there is too much money floating in the banking system. If the reverse repo rate is increased, it means the RBI will borrow money from the bank and offer them a lucrative rate of interest. As a result, banks would prefer to keep their money with the RBI (which is absolutely risk free) instead of lending it out (this option comes with a certain amount of risk). Consequently, banks would have lesser funds to lend to their customers. This helps stem the flow of excess money into the economy Reverse repo rate signifies the rate at which the central bank absorbs liquidity from the banks, while repo signifies the rate at which liquidity is injected.

Bank Rate
This is the rate at which RBI lends money to other banks (or financial institutions . The bank rate signals the central bank’s long-term outlook on interest rates. If the bank rate moves up, long-term interest rates also tend to move up, and vice-versa. Banks make a profit by borrowing at a lower rate and lending the same funds at a higher rate of interest. If the RBI hikes the bank rate (this is currently 6 per cent), the interest that a bank pays for borrowing money (banks borrow money either from each other or from the RBI) increases. It, in turn, hikes its own lending rates to ensure it continues to make a profit.

Call Rate
Call rate is the interest rate paid by the banks for lending and borrowing for daily fund requirement. Since banks need funds on a daily basis, they lend to and borrow from other banks according to their daily or short-term requirements on a regular basis.

CRR
Also called the cash reserve ratio, refers to a portion of deposits (as cash) which banks have to keep/maintain with the RBI. This serves two purposes. It ensures that a portion of bank deposits is totally risk-free and secondly it enables that RBI control liquidity in the system, and thereby, inflation by tying their hands in lending money.

SLR
Besides the CRR, banks are required to invest a portion of their deposits in government securities as a part of their statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) requirements. What SLR does is again restrict the bank’s leverage in pumping more money into the economy.

Human Development Index(HDI)
Human development can be viewed as the process of achieving an optimum level of health and well-being. It includes physical, biological, mental, emotional, social, educational, economic, and cultural components. Only some of these are expressed in the Human Development Index, a composite scale that has three dimensions: life expectancy at birth, adult literacy rate and mean years of schooling, and income as measured by real gross domestic product per capita. Like all one-dimensional scales that attempt to measure multiple complex variables, it is flawed by inherent inaccuracies, but it is nonetheless a useful comparative measure of the well-being of a population. The Human Development Index (HDI) is a composite statistic used to rank countries by level of "human development" and separate developed (high development), developing (middle development), and underdeveloped (low development) countries. The statistic is composed from data on life expectancy, education and per-capita GDP (as an indicator of standard of living) collected at the national level. Index of Industrial Production(IIP) An index of the total output from manufacturing, mining, and utility companies. The Federal Reserve Board compiles the industrial production index and publishes it monthly. It is seen as an indicator of macroeconomic trends. A high industrial production index indicates that economic growth and is seen as good for stockholders, especially in industrial sectors. A low industrial production index indicates that industry is falling, which is bad for stockholders, but good for bondholders, as the Fed may use the index as a reason to cut interest rates. Low industrial production also means that there are fewer inflationary pressures on the economy