The Indian rupee drifted lower against the U.S. dollar in afternoon deals on Thursday, as India's central bank left its key interest rate unchanged and reiterated that it will maintain its "accommodative" stance as as long as required to revive growth.

At the sixth bi-monthly monetary policy meeting, the monetary policy committee of the Reserve Bank of India decided to hold the policy repo rate at 5.15 percent. The bank has also kept the reverse repo rate unchanged at 4.90 percent.

The central bank has lowered its key rate five times by a cumulative 135 basis points in 2019.

The MPC recognizes that there is policy space available for future action, the bank said.

The rupee weakened to a 2-day low of 71.28 against the greenback from Wednesday's closing value of 71.19. Next likely downside target for the rupee is seen around the 73.00 level.

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