'Our focus in terms of policy choices is to get headline inflation to 4%'

RBI increased the repo rate by 25 bps to 6.50%

Reserve Bank of India Governor Urjit Patel & other top officials spoke to the media about the decision to raise the repo rate, their views on inflation and the ongoing global trade skirmishes. Edited excerpts:

With two rate hikes and a 4 per cent-plus inflation projection till Q1 of FY20, why is the neutral stance appropriate? 

Urjit Patel: First, many of the risks that we have considered in our projections are on both sides, that is why we have said that these projections are against the backdrop of balanced risks. Second, there is a fair bit of uncertainty around the consumer price