The RBI on Thursday maintained status quo on its key short-term lending rate at 6 per cent at its first bi-monthly monetary policy review of the new fiscal, in line with what was being widely expected.

This is the fourth policy review in succession that the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) six-member Monetary Policy Committee
(MPC) has kept the repo, or short-term interest rate for commercial banks, unchanged, according to the RBI statement here.

As per official data, retail inflation based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) fell to 4.44 per cent in February, from 5.07 per
cent in January, but remained outside the RBI's medium-term target of 4 per cent.