Multiple factors led to growth slowdown: Governor

Mumbai: The growth slowdown is due to a multiplicity of factors, and not due to the Reserve Bank’s repo rate, outgoing Governor Shaktikanta Das said on Tuesday.

Addressing a press conference on his last day at work, Das said restoring the growth-inflation balance is the most important task ahead for the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Das thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for giving the opportunity to head the monetary authority of the country. The six years during which Das was the RBI Governor included the Covid period and major geopolitical upheavals like the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. The RBI has chosen to maintain interest rates at elevated levels for nearly two years, with the Das-headed Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) opting for a status quo at 11 consecutive meetings. Das asserted that ties between Mint Road and the Finance Ministry were ‘the best’ in his six-year stint.

Making it clear that people are entitled to their views, the outgoing Governor told reporters that the effort has been to make the monetary policy ‘as appropriate as possible’, keeping in mind the ongoing conditions and also future outlook. Urging people to not look at the issue of rate-setting in a simplistic way, Das said, “as I look at it, I think growth is impacted by multiplicity of factors, not just one factor of, you know, the repo rate”.

“Within the MPC and RBI, I think we are convinced that what we have done was the best option available... under the circumstances,” he added.