Reserve Bank Governor Shaktikanta Das
Highlight
- RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said the pandemic takes the global economy hostage
- Das said the real GDP growth of 9.2% in FY12 will take the economy above pre-pandemic levels
- He said that India is on various paths of recovery and it will be the fastest growing economy.
The six-member Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) headed by Reserve Bank Governor Shaktikanta Das on Thursday decided to maintain status quo on the benchmark interest rate or repo rate. Along with this, the repo rate remains at 4 percent and the reverse repo rate at 3.35 percent. This was the first meeting of the MPC after the Budget for 2022-23 was presented in Parliament on February 1.
This is the tenth time in a row that the rate has remained unchanged. The central bank last revised the policy rate on May 22, 2020 in an off-policy cycle to meet demand by reducing the interest rate to historic lows.
Das said the MPC voted unanimously to keep the interest rate unchanged and decided to continue with its accommodative stance for as long as is necessary to support growth and keep inflation within the target.
For the current financial year, the RBI has retained its growth forecast at 9.2 per cent and inflation at 5.3 per cent.
“The real GDP growth of 9.2 per cent in FY22 will take it above pre-pandemic levels,” the RBI governor said, adding that India is taking a different course of recovery than the rest of the world and the country is the most is developing rapidly. Economy
Retail inflation rose to a five-month high of 5.59 per cent in December from 4.91 per cent in November, mainly due to a rise in food prices. The MPC has been mandated to maintain annual inflation at 4 per cent till March 31, 2026, with an upper tolerance of 6 per cent and a lower tolerance of 2 per cent.
The last MPC held in December 2021 had kept the benchmark interest rate unchanged at 4 per cent and decided to continue with its accommodative stance against the backdrop of concerns over the emergence of the new coronavirus variant, Omron. The government has also tasked the MPC to keep inflation in the range of 2-6 per cent.
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