RBI prioritising inflation over growth now: Shaktikanta Das

The RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said that after a period of three years the RBI has now prioritised inflation over economic growth taking note of the upside risks to inflation due to global geo-political factors.

In terms of sequence of priorities, the RBI has now kept inflation ahead of economic growth, Das said in the post-policy press conference.

The RBI has revised upwards its inflation projection for the current fiscal year FY2022-23. In its last policy review, the RBI had projected the inflation at 4.5 per cent.


The RBI has also cut its economic growth forecast to 7.2 per cent from 7.8 per cent in the last policy review.

"The broad-based jump in global commodity prices has exacerbated inflationary pressures across advanced economies (AEs) and emerging market economies (EMEs) alike causing a sharp revision in their inflation projections.," the RBI said.

Inflation has for the last two prints for the months of January and February registered at over 6 per cent. This is above the upper end of RBI's tolerance band.

The RBI has kept the key policy repo rate at 4 per cent while introducing the Standing Deposit Facility (SDF) at 3.75 per cent and MSF at 4.25 per cent. With this, the RBI has restored the Liquidity Adjustment Facility (LAF) corridor to 50 basis points.

"Looking ahead, the inflation trajectory will depend critically upon the evolving geopolitical situation and its impact on global commodity prices and logistics.," the RBI said.