Indian economy well placed to handle any kind of spillovers from global events: RBI Guv

Kochi: Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das on Saturday said that the Indian economy and financial sector are well placed to handle any kind of spillovers from global events. The country’s external sector is also strong and our current account deficit has remained within manageable limits and stood at 1.1 per cent.

“Today, the growth of the Indian economy presents a picture of stability and strength,” he said, while addressing a programme as part of the launch of the Kochi International Foundation here.

Earlier, in 2010 and 2011 it was in the range of six to seven per cent, he pointed out.

Das also cited that India has one of the largest foreign exchange reserves in the world at about USD 675 billion.

On inflation, the RBI Governor said, “it is expected to be moderate despite periodic humps,”

India’s inflation rose to 6.2 per cent in October from 5.5 per cent in September because of food inflation. He compared inflation to an elephant in the room. “Now the elephant has gone out of the room for a walk, then it will go back to the forest,” he added. “When the Ukraine war started, inflation went up, then we immediately avoided negative interest rates,” he said.

“What we did not do in India is also important. We, RBI, did not print notes because if we start printing notes the problems we are trying to resolve will expand and go beyond handling. In many countries the inflation was deep-rooted but ours is moderating,” he added.

“We kept our interest rate 4 per cent, therefore making our recovery much easier,” he pointed out.

Citing that the country requires structural reforms in service sector and others, Das said that like the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and the Unified Lending Interface (ULI), the RBI is going to bring transformational change in credit delivery especially to small entreprenuers and farmers.