The Reserve Bank of India today announced a slew of measures, including a 100 basis point reduction in the repo and reverse repo rates and easier terms of lending to the recession-hit micro and small industries, exporters and the real estate business, in view of the tight money conditions.Announcing the policy measures today, RBI governor D Subbarao said there will be no change in the cash reserve ratio (CRR) and the statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) for banks.The RBI said the repo rate under the liquidity adjustment facility (LAF) will stand reduced by 100 basis points, from 7.5 per cent to 6.5 per cent, and the reverse repo rate by 100 basis points, from 6.0 per cent to 5.0 per cent, effective 8 December.2008

In a bid to enhance credit flow to the labour-intensive micro and small enterprises (MSE) sector, the RBI also decided to provide refinance facility of up to Rs7,000 crore to the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI). This refinance will be available against SIDBIs incremental direct lending to MSEs, banks, NBFCs and state financial corporations (SFCs) against the latters incremental loans and advances to MSEs, effective 30 September, RBI said in a release.The facility can be availed of and repaid under the LAF any time for a period of 90 days from 8 December. It is also renewable at the end of the 90-day period. This facility will be available up 31 March 2010.The RBI is also working on a similar refinance facility for the National Housing Bank (NHB) of an amount of Rs4,000 crore, details of which will be announced at the next meeting of the central board of the Reserve Bank meeting next week