India’s central bank cuts rates to 9-year low as economy stumbles

India’s central bank has cut interest rates for a fourth time this year, slashing its key lending rate to the lowest level in nine years in a bid to support the country’s faltering economy.

The Reserve Bank of India said Wednesday that another rate cut was needed to boost growth and private investment. Shaktikanta Das has now cut rates at each of his four meetings since taking over as governor of the central bank in December.

The rate cut, which was bigger than economists had expected, reduces the rate at which the RBI lends to banks to 5.4%. It was last that low in April 2010.

India’s economy has slumped in recent months, with gross domestic product growth falling from 6.6% to 5.8% in the quarter ended March — slower than China’s for the first time in more than a year and the weakest since 2014.

The real picture could be even worse. The country’s former chief economic adviser, Arvind Subramanian, said in June that India’s growth figures for the past several years may have been a “significant overestimation.”

This is a developing story …