Stay the course

RBI should not stop the normalisation process

The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is expected to keep the policy rate and stance unchanged in its bi-monthly meeting this week. The economic outlook, however, has become far more uncertain in recent days. A new variant of Covid-19, named Omicron — first discovered in South Africa — is said to be more contagious than the Delta variant, which was partly responsible for the deadly second wave in India. Although scientists might take some more time to gauge the potential consequences, the World Health Organization has called it a “variant of concern”. The resultant