The State Bank of India (SBI) has revealed slight decreases in its primary lending rates and certain term deposit rates, starting December 15.

The interest rate for deposits with a maturity of 2 to less than 3 years has been lowered to 6.40 percent from 6.45 percent. Senior citizens will enjoy a 50 basis points advantage, bringing their rate down to 6.90 percent from 6.95 percent. Other retail term deposit categories remain unchanged, as stated in an announcement.

These adjustments affect domestic retail term deposits under Rs 3 crore, the Marginal Cost of Funds-based Lending Rate (MCLR), the External Benchmark Linked Rate (EBLR), and the Base Rate.

The bank has also reduced the rate for the well-known 444-day “Amrit Vrishti” deposit to 6.45 percent from 6.60 percent.

Additionally, SBI has lowered the borrowing costs for home, auto, and MSME loans by decreasing the MCLR rates across all tenors by 5 basis points.

The MCLR for overnight and one-month loans has been decreased to 7.85 percent, while rates for three months, six months, one year, two years, and three years have been set at 8.25 percent, 8.60 percent, 8.70 percent, 8.75 percent, and 8.80 percent respectively.

Moreover, the External Benchmark Lending Rate (EBLR), which is used to set the rates for many floating-rate retail loans, has been reduced by 25 basis points to 7.90 percent from 8.15 percent.

The Base Rate or BPLR for a small group of legacy borrowers has been adjusted down to 9.90 percent from 10.00 percent, effective on the same date.

Earlier this week, the government announced that there has been no capital infusion into public sector banks since the financial year 2022-23, as these banks have notably enhanced their financial performance, becoming profitable and strengthening their capital base.

In the meantime, the anticipated reduction in goods and services tax (GST) is projected to decrease consumer price index (CPI) inflation by about 25 basis points during the September–November 2025 period and could lead to a reduction of 35 basis points this fiscal year (FY26), according to a report by the State Bank of India (SBI).