Low retail inflation gives RBI room to support economic growth: Bimal Jalan

The former governor currently heads a central bank-appointed panel, which is studying how much of the RBI's surplus capital can be transferred to the government

Softer inflation in India puts the central bank in a position to support economic growth, said former governor Bimal Jalan.

“We are in a very good situation so far as inflation is concerned,” Jalan, 77, who headed the Reserve Bank of India between 1997 and 2003, said in an interview in New Delhi on Tuesday. “There is some uncertainty about the rate of growth. That needs to be strengthened.”

New RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das surprised economists by easing monetary policy in February, and data since then suggests Asia’s third-largest economy could do with some more stimulus. Economic growth slowed to 6.6 percent