Borrowing significantly cheaper and will continue to do so: Rajan | Top quotes

Top quotes from RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan's post-policy press conference

The Reserve Bank of India on Tuesday decided to slash the repo rate by 25 basis points (bps) at 6.50%.  A repo rate means the rate at which the RBI will lend to the banks in case of shortage of funds. 

The central bank, meanwhile, expected the economy to grow at 7.6% in financial year 2016-17. 

“Borrowing is now significantly cheaper and will continue to do so,” Raghuram Rajan, Governor, RBI said in the post-policy press conference. 

Here’s a look at top quotes from the Governor’s press conference

On rate cut

We have cut rates by 150 basis points since the beginning of the accommodative cycle

Because of MCLR (Marginal Cost of Funds-based Lending Rate), we already had a 25-50 bps cut before the policy

On Indian economy

The rate cut is sensible given the current state of the economy 

If the monsoon is not good enough, there are risks to achieving 7.6% GDP growth there.

Banks and liquidity 
 

Finally, the process of cleaning up bank balance sheets is underway and I am happy with the progress

Now that we have given them more liquidity, banks can transmit more 

On Kingfisher and Vijay Mallya

It is important this kind of investigation not be done through the press

We need to understand the conditions that were there under which the loans were given by the banks, given the information that was known then

It is important that we investigate possible criminal activity but based on judgments that had to be made at that time

On Panama

There are legitimate reasons to have a bank account outside. We are part of the agency to probe this 
 

Excess Cash

Regarding cash in the hands of the public rising, we have seen that this happens during the time of elections. You can guess why

There is something there (the reason why excess cash rises). We need to understand it better. It is about Rs 50,000 crore more than what we anticipated this year

On disclosing names of defaulters

Many of you in this room may have defaulted on credit card bills. Do you want your names to be put out in public?

We do not have a problem with the names of willful defaulters being put out in public

Meanwhile, Deputy Governors HR Khan also elaborated on the Panama leaks and said that a multi-agency probe was underway. "A lot of things are permitted, a lot of things aren't; there is a grey area too. All of it will be known once the investigation is complete," he said.