The RBI's reluctance to tweak the key lending rates during the Monetary Policy review left the repo rate at a stiff 8%. In fact as the chart shows, the repo rate at which the central bank lends to commercial banks has been stiff for nearly 30 months now. Although the government has been prodding the RBI to adopt a more liberal approach to interest rates in order to boost GDP growth, the RBI has refused to do so citing sticky inflation numbers.