Overarching policy focus and priority now supporting growth: Shaktikanta Das

09 Dec 2021 Evaluate

Defending the central bank's more-than-anticipated dovish stance wherein the MPC unanimously voted to continue with an accommodative policy, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das has said that ‘our overarching policy focus and priority now is supporting growth’ amid the threat of a third wave of COVID-19 and the legroom a cooling inflation print offers. But, he also said ‘maintaining price stability is also our concern along with financial stability as we are an inflation-targeting central bank’. The RBI's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) left the key policy rates unchanged for the ninth time in a row. The repo rate was left at 4 per cent, which was on expected lines, while the reverse repo, which has been the effective policy rate since the pandemic hit in March 2020, was kept unchanged at 3.35 per cent.

Das said retail inflation is likely to ease to around 5 per cent next fiscal on the back of government measures to ease supplies, reduction in fuel prices and prospects of good crops. For FY22, retail inflation is pegged at 5.3 per cent and should inch down to 4 - 4.3 per cent by end-FY23. He added that reduction in excise duty and VAT on petrol and diesel will bring about a ‘durable reduction in inflation’ by way of direct effect as well as indirect effect through lower transportation cost. Despite sounding cautious about the possible impact of the Omicron variant, the central bank chose to keep its growth forecast unchanged at 9.5 per cent for the current fiscal (6.6 per cent in Q3 and 6 per cent in Q4). However, it added that recovery is not yet strong enough to be self-sustaining as activities of only a few key sectors have reached pre-pandemic levels, while the more important consumer demand and private capex are still a far cry.

He admitted that the economy is facing several challenges in terms of market volatility, rising crude oil and commodity prices and supply side disruptions like container and chips shortages. He said ‘and we've factored in all these while remaining accommodative in our policy stance.’ On whether the RBI is risking losing its inflation fight as it continues to provide liquidity to an already fund-flushed market, Das said looking at the surging inflation in various major advanced economies amid the Omicron threat, ‘being cautious was the best option left for us’.

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