Zee Media Bureau
New Delhi: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Tuesday left interest rate unchanged in its annual monetary policy due to increased food prices after unseasonable rains in various parts of the country.
Soon after announcing the credit policy, RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan addressed the media in RBI headquarters in Mumbai.
Highlights from the conference:
- Want to move at Libor like system in India quickly.
- Fed policy will not constraint our next policy move.
- Trying to push banks towards marginal costing of base rates.
- Expect liquidity to improve this month.
- Recent rate cuts not passed on to lending rates. March is a tight month, April is less tight; there will be room for banks to cut rates.
- Faster banks address issues, the better it is.
- Expect more financial reforms from RBI.
- Developing financial benchmark for banks to price products.
- Will issue priority sector lending guidelines before end of this month.
- Do not see a tepid credit growth.
- Expanding the loan limits of Micro-finance institutions.
- Going to open up possibility of Indian companies to issue Rupee bonds in overseas markets.
- More focused on domestic economy, local requirements.
- Outlook for growth is improving gradually.
- RBI not status quo on measures needed to improve the economy.
- There is room if we look into it but we need to look at other pieces to fit into it.
- Adequately buffered against the impact of US Fed rate hike.
- US Fed policy not going to be a key factor determine domestic monetary policy.
- Banks over time will be force to match up to the market; banks will eventually go for rate cut.
-We are more focused on domestic economy and domestic requirement.
- Forex reserves allow us to focus on domestic issues.
- CPI inflation expected to fall by 4 percent in August but firm up to 5.8 percent by year end.
- Timing of future cut will depend on how much room we have.
- Remain vigilant to threats to underway disinflation, says Raghuram Rajan.
