RBI keeping balance between growth and inflation: Jaitley

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley Tuesday welcomed the Reserve Bank of India's monetary policy stance saying the central bank has followed a "calibrated approach" to strike a balance between growth and inflation.

The RBI after its bimonthly monetary policy review kept the the policy rates unchanged, but reduced the SLR (statutary liquidity ratio) by 50 basis points.

"The RBI has chosen to maintain a balance between growth and inflation while keeping the policy rates unchanged. It has allowed banks to lend more to the private sector since they will be required to subscribe less to government securities than earlier. It has followed a calibrated approach aimed in the direction of balancing between growth and inflation," Jaitley said.

He was reacting to the apex bank's decisions earlier in the day.

The finance minister said it was a priority for the government to maintain a balance between growth and inflation.

"We would like to address the problem of inflation through supply side measures particularly in relation to food inflation," he said, adding that fiscal consolidation is also a priority.

Jaitley said the government was also concerned with restarting the investment cycle and moving towards higher growth and employment generation.