homeeconomy NewsSeveral global storms hitting at once prompted RBI to hike key interest rate: Monetary Policy Committee minutes
Several global storms hitting at once prompted RBI to hike key interest rate: Monetary Policy Committee minutes
According to the minutes of the Monetary Policy Committee, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor had said that the monetary policy actions were aimed to lower inflation and anchor inflation expectations, with a view to strengthen the economy's medium-term growth prospects as well as protect the purchasing power of the weaker sections of society
Several global storms hitting together prompted the Reserve Bank of India to hike the key interest rate in an off-cycle review by the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), said the minutes of the rate-setting panel that were released on Wednesday.
According to the minutes, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said the off-cycle monetary policy actions were aimed at lowering inflation and anchoring inflation expectations with a view to strengthening the medium-term growth prospects of the economy and protecting the purchasing power of the weaker sections of society.
After its meeting on May 2 and 4, the MPC had recommended raising the key interest rate (repo) by 40 basis points. The rate was hiked with immediate effect. It was the first hike since August 2018. "As several storms hit together, our monetary policy response should be seen as an important step to steady the ship. The Indian as well as global evidence clearly shows that high inflation persistence hurts savings, investment, competitiveness and growth," the governor had said, as per the minutes.
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RBI Deputy Governor and MPC member Michael Debabrata Patra said at the meeting that in this milieu, a measured approach and a cool head is warranted. "Recent incoming data suggest that India's macro-fundamentals, barring imported food and fuel inflation, are still intact and in sync with the recovery that has been tenaciously making its way through waves of the pandemic," he said.
All the six members of the panel had voted to raise the repo rate or short-term lending rate by 40 basis points to 4.4 percent.
First Published: May 18, 2022 5:56 PM IST
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