RBI to ensure soft landing economy wherein inflation is closer to 4%: Shaktikanta Das
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das said the central bank will ensure that the economy has a soft landing wherein inflation is closer to 4 percent, with minimal impact on growth. He said retail inflation appears to have peaked and the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) in its upcoming meeting in August will review the inflation projection of 6.7 percent for fiscal 2022-23.
Das said the country had reached a kind of soft landing till the war broke out in Europe. This has resulted in new challenges such as a rise in commodities, and crude prices and their impact on the country; monetary policy tightening by other central banks and their spillovers; capital outflows, and currency depreciation, which are beyond RBI's control. He also said any decision of RBI about liquidity and policy rates always takes into consideration the kind of impact it is going to have on growth and revival of economic activity. However, in a sequence of priorities, he said RBI's focus currently is on inflation followed by growth, Das said.
Talking on the flexible inflation targeting framework, the governor said the regime has worked very well for the country. Under the flexible inflation targeting framework, RBI is expected to maintain retail inflation at 4 percent (+/- 2 percent). He said ‘so far as India is concerned, the framework has worked well before the pandemic, during the pandemic and even now, I would say that we are very much in line with the requirements of time in terms of steps that need to be taken’.