RBI may continue with its reining in inflation stand in forthcoming policy meet

The slowing industrial production and industry bodies repeated plea to lower the interest rate may not get any early hearing, as the Reserve Bank Governor D Subbarao has said that the central bank's efforts would be to rein in inflation and support growth to the extent possible, indicating a few more measures to be announced to restrain inflation at its forthcoming policy meeting on October 30.

The apex bank which has kept its key policy rates unchanged since April because of inflationary pressure and widening fiscal and current account is likely to stick to a hawkish stance, as Subbarao has reiterated that inflation was not at a comfort level and more steps are required to keep inflation in check. Though, he said that opening of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the retail sector would bring down inflation as it would bring a lot of benefits to the country, producers, consumers and others. Has also said that competitive pricing would be beneficial to consumers.

'Those growth drivers are productivity improvement, entrepreneurial talent, demographic profile of the country, last middle class market, the potential for increasing savings and enormous capacity levels in the country and they are intact. I am sure that we can grow much faster than we are today,' Subbarao said.

The governor however said it must be noted that inflation level was brought down from double-digit to around 7.5 now, only because of the continuous and constant efforts, taken over a period, by the RBI and the Government. He said RBI will make an assessment of inflation, the external sector and the fiscal outlook in its monetary policy.