FM welcomes pause in RBI’s rate tightening cycle

16 Dec 2011 Evaluate

The Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee welcomed the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) pause from its rate tightening cycle in its mid-quarter monetary policy and also remained hopeful that inflation would calm down further in coming weeks. “The need to improve the business sentiments and recover the growth momentum in the remaining months of the current fiscal necessitated a review of the monetary policy stance.I believe that inflation will moderate further in the coming weeks and, therefore, the announcement today is welcome,” Mukherjee said.

The RBI, in its mid-quarter monetary policy review, kept its repo rate and reverse rate unchanged, because of the slowdown in economic activities. The RBI maintained its lending and borrowing rates at 8.5% and 7.5% respectively. The central bank also surprised the market by keeping Cash Reserve Ratio unchanged, amid broad expectations of a cut in the rate.

The decision of not increasing interest rate has been welcomed by the industry and policy makers. Experts are of the view that the anti-inflationary monetary policy stance adopted by the RBI has been affected the growth rate. The Indian economy is going through tough time; its economic growth in second quarter of 2011-12 fell to 6.9% compared to 7.7% in the April-June 2011. Industrial output also fell to -5.1% in October 2011. 

Pranab Mukherjee also welcomed steps taken by RBI on December 15, to check the rupee's slide and speculations by imposing restrictions on forward trading in the domestic currency by FIIs and traders, and by limiting banks' exposure to the forex market. “I also welcome the Governor's resolve to check the speculative interventions in foreign exchange market which among other factors have contributed to the sharp depreciation of the Indian rupee against the US dollar,” Mukherjee said.

The finance minister also hoped that the pause in RBI rate tightening cycle in its mid-quarter monetary policy should help in regaining India’s growth momentum with improved macroeconomic parameters in the remaining months of current fiscal year. “RBI Governor has chosen to reflect his concerns on growth which has faltered in the past few months with October IIP reflecting a significant contraction across all industry sectors,” Mukherjee said.

By adding further he said that appreciable decline in food inflation in November has resulted in a dip in headline inflation for November. In the month of November, headline inflation declined to 9.11% compared to 9.73% in last month. However, inflation in manufactured goods remained above 7%, it stood at 7.7%. On the other hand, weekly food inflation for the week ended on December 3, fell below 5% mark, it stood at 4.35% compared to 6% in last week.

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