RBI on tricky terrain of high inflation and slowing growth

Mumbai: December 11, 10 am. The person in the 18th floor corner room of the central bank’s Mint Street Tower would have to deal with grim truths: a shadow of slowdown, a weaker currency, sticky inflation, and huge expectations to deliver.

Will Shaktikanta Das, the longest serving RBI governor, continue to wage the arduous battle?

While Das may well get an extension (perhaps for a year), no one would have asked the question even a few months ago.

But despite all the accolades and after running a steady ship, Das is completing his six eventful years in RBI on a sombre note: missing inflation target, senior ministers stoking a simmering controversy over computation of inflation, RBI’s reluctance to spot a slowing growth and the regulator’s stern measures to diffuse loan bubbles worsening the consumption squeeze. All this is grist to the rumour mills that are spewing names of possible successors: a finmin official, other senior bureaucrats and even one RBI deputy governor with whom a key PMO person had a long chat recently.

Rarely, if ever in the past, markets have been left guessing whether the man who is presiding over the crucial 2-day monetary policy committee (MPC) meeting (on Wednesday and Thursday) would be around to oversee the impact of the MPC measures.

But gossip, like markets, can take on a life of its own. The fog may clear over the weekend. The chart is a rough scorecard of the story so far.