Monetary policy overall positive, growth-oriented, say experts
New Delhi, October 9
Bankers and financial experts on Friday hailed RBI’s policy, saying the decision to keep the key repo rate unchanged is an accommodative approach to manage inflation while keeping growth as target, amid the current economic conditions.
The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) evaluated domestic and global macroeconomic and financial conditions and voted unanimously to leave the repo rate unchanged at 4%, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said in his policy statement for the bi-monthly monetary policy review.
It also decided to continue with the accommodative stance of monetary policy as long as necessary — at least during the current financial year and into the next year — to revive growth on a durable basis and mitigate the impact of Covid, while ensuring that inflation remains within the target going forward.
“Today’s policy statement by RBI is a perfect exposition of doing ‘whatever it takes’ to revive growth,” SBI chairman Dinesh Kumar Khara said.
Given the expectation of inflation to stay elevated and a GDP contraction of 9.5% in 2020-21, RBI has done the right thing by announcing “discretion-based” policy responses rather than being “rule based”, he added.
Punjab National Bank’s MD and CEO SS Mallikarjuna Rao welcomed the Rs 1 lakh crore targeted long-term repo operations and said it will support the economic growth. — PTI
