No hike needed if inflation within tolerance band: MPC member Ashima Goyal

In a Q&A, she explains why the rate setting panel's current focus should be to bring down inflation

Ashima Goyal, member of the Reserve Bank of India's Monetary Policy Committee, explains why the rate setting panel’s current focus should be to bring down inflation, and dwells on RBI's 6.5 per cent GDP growth estimate for FY24, in an interaction with Manojit Saha. Edited excerpts:

In the MPC minutes, you said though growth is resilient, there are signs of slowdown in some high frequency data. Has RBI over estimated growth with its 6.5 per cent projection for FY24?

Since the growth forecast is lower than last year’s CSO second advance estimate of 7 per cent, it does take into