The State Bank of India has revised its base rate to 7.45 per cent and benchmark prime lending rate to 12.20 per cent. The new rates come into effect from Wednesday (September 15, 2021).

According to historical data available on the SBI website, the base rate was 7.4 per cent and the benchmark prime lending rate was 12.15 per cent, effective March 10, 2021. The interest rates — both base rate and prime lending rates — have been on a decline since December 2018.

The bank, however, has kept the MCLR rates unchanged with one year MCLR rate at 7 per cent per annum. The external benchmark Rate (EBR) of the bank is 6.65 per cent effective July 1, 2021.

The development comes at a time retail inflation has eased to 5.3 per cent in August from 5.6 per cent in July and WPI inflation is marginally up at 11.39 per cent in August from 11.2 per cent in July after two consecutive months of easing. Market analysts anticipate no further action from the Reserve Bank of India on the policy rates.

“We continue to hold to our view that the RBI is unlikely to take any action of tightening policy interest rates till the end of FY2022, but it can continue to manage surplus overnight liquidity via modulations in VRRR (variable reverse repo rate) instrument,” Yes Bank analysts Indranil Pan and Radhika Piplani said in a report on Tuesday.