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Reserve Bank Governor Sanjay Malhotra opined that rate reduction was an appropriate monetary policy response at this juncture citing movement of inflation towards the central bank's 4 per cent target, said the MPC meeting minutes released on Friday. Malhotra, along with five other members of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) had voted for a 25 basis points reduction in the short-term lending rate (repo) to 6.25 per cent. The RBI at its meeting held from February 5 to 7 effected the rate cut after a gap of five years. "Given the macroeconomic outlook when inflation is expected to align with the target, and recognising that monetary policy is forward-looking, I view a lower policy rate to be more appropriate at the current juncture," Malhotra said, according to the minutes. Chairing his first MPC meeting, he had also pointed out that rising uncertainties on global financial markets and trade policy front, coupled with continuing risk of adverse weather events pose risks to the ...
The continuing global uncertainity has complicated the fight against inflation, opined Reserve Bank Deputy Governor Michael Debabrata Patra during the Monetary Policy Committee meeting held on February 8. According to the minutes of the MPC meeting released on Wednesday, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das also mentioned that there is considerable uncertainty due to a host of global factors such as rising non-oil commodity prices. The RBI on February 8 hiked the key short-term lending rate by 25 basis points to 6.5 per cent, citing sticky core inflation. It was the sixth interest rate hike by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) since May last year, taking the total quantum of increase to 250 basis points. "The fight against inflation is complicated by the global outlook. There is some consensus growing around a milder slowdown than earlier feared, although geographical disparities complicate the prognosis. Be that as it may, the outlook for global inflation is turning more uncertain than ...