FM bats for 'increased complementarity' as RBI pegs growth at 6 pc for FY '20-21

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday batted for "increased complementarity in policy between the RBI and the Central government" to address growth concerns as India's central bank pegged the growth rate at 6 pc for the financial year of 2020-21.

"The Finance Minister indicated increased complementarity in policy between the RBI and the Government to address growth concerns," said the central bank in a statement today.

Finance Minister Sitharaman on Saturday addresses the Central Board of Directors of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which was held here today.

The Finance Minister in her address outlined the thinking behind the Union Budget 2020-21 and the focus areas of the government.

RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das on Saturday said that the central bank has projected a growth rate of 6 per cent for FY '20-21. Das was speaking at a joint press conference after the post-budget meet with Sitharaman.

According to the statement, the Union Finance Minister was accompanied by Anurag Singh Thakur, Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs, Tuhin Kanta Pandey, Secretary, Investment and Public Asset Management, Dr TV Somanathan, Secretary, Expenditure, and Dr Krishnamurthy Subramanian, Chief Economic Advisor.

The Board in its meeting reviewed the current economic situation, global and domestic challenges and various areas of operations of the RBI. It recommended aligning the financial year of RBI, currently July-June, with the Government's fiscal year (April-March) from the year 2020-21 and approved forwarding a proposal to the government for its consideration.

Das chaired the meeting of the Central Board. Deputy Governors BP Kanungo, Mahesh Kumar Jain, Dr MD Patra, and other Directors of the Central Board. The Directors of the Government of India on the Central Board Rajiv Kumar, Finance Secretary and Secretary, Financial Services, Atanu Chakraborty, Secretary, Economic Affairs, also attended the meeting.