RBI pegs FY25 growth at 7%, inflation at 4.5%
Hindustan TimesThe Reserve Bank of India on Thursday decided to keep the policy rate unchanged for the sixth time in a row, citing global uncertainty and the need to bring down retail inflation to 4 %, and said that it expects GDP growth in the next financial year to be at 7%. “Monetary policy must continue to be actively disinflationary to align inflation to the target of 4 % on a durable basis”, Governor Shaktikanta Das said in his statement after the bimonthly Monetary Policy Committee of the RBI on Thursday. In what was the last MPC meeting for the fiscal year 2023-24 and before the 2024 general elections, the central bank stuck to its guns on the need to prioritise inflation targeting over growth in the wake of elevated geopolitical risks and supply side-driven shocks to food inflation. In our assessment, the current setting of monetary policy is moving in the right direction with growth holding firm and inflation trending down to the target”, Das said in his statement justifying monetary policy’s focus on inflation rather than growth.