Subbarao gets 2-yr extension as RBI Governor

Ending months of suspense, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today gave a two-year extension to RBI Governor D Subbarao beyond September.

"The Prime Minister approved the extension to D Subbarao, Governor of RBI, for two years," a PMO spokesman said.

The extension will be with effect from September 5 this year till September 4, 2013.

The 61-year-old IAS officer and veteran Finance Ministry official was appointed the 22nd Governor of the central bank in September, 2008, for a three-year term.

Interestingly, the announcement of his extension comes just two days before his birthday.

The continuity of Subbarao at the helm of the RBI assumes significance as it comes at a time when the government and the central bank are gearing up to meet the challenge posed by downgrade of the US sovereign rating and the economic crisis in several Eurozone nations.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee expressed his happiness on the announcement, "It (extension) will be good because at this point of time, extension of the RBI Governor is needed. Though there was time till September, we decided (that) we should do it quickly to ensure that there is no uncertainty."

"He (Subbarao) is doing good job and he has already earned his reputation as central bank Governor in the various deliberations of the G-20, where Finance Ministers and central bank governors meet and take decisions," Mukherjee said.

Subbarao, who has headed RBI since 2008, steered the country through the economic crisis. He is credited with taking a tough monetary stance to check inflation.

Under his governorship, the RBI recently doubled the frequency of monetary policy reviews from every quarter to eight times a year with a view to decrease the need for off-cycle rate moves.

Subbarao had earlier served under Manmohan Singh in the Finance Ministry as a senior official in the early 1990s, when the latter was Finance Minister.

Prior to this appointment, he was the country's Finance Secretary.