The Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das on Friday said that the Reserve Bank remains in "whatever it takes" mode to revive growth as it kept the GDP growth forecast unchanged at 9.5 per cent for the current financial year. The RBI has pegged the GDP growth rate at 21.4 per cent in the first quarter, 7.3 per cent in the second quarter, 6.3 per cent in the third quarter and 6.1 per cent in the fourth quarter of the current financial year.
RBI's GDP estimates come in the backdrop of a reduction in GDP forecast for India amid looming concerns over a possible third wave. Last week, the International Monetary Fund lowered its 2021-22 economic growth forecast for India by 300 basis points to 9.5 per cent from the earlier 12.5 per cent.
"The recovery remains uneven across sectors and needs to be supported by all policy makers. The Reserve Bank remains in "whatever it takes" mode, with a readiness to deploy all its policy levers - monetary, prudential or regulatory," RBI Governor Das said in the Monetary Policy Statement.
The RBI governor's comments came after the Reserve Bank of India's six-member monetary policy committee kept repo rate unchanged at record low of 4 per cent at its seventh straight meeting while maintaining its "accommodative" stance as the economy is yet to recover from impact of second Covid wave.
Commenting on the outlook of the Covid-19 pandemic Governor Das said, "As the COVID-19 second wave ebbs, there is optimism that with adequate pandemic protocols and ramp-up in the vaccination rate, we should be able to tide over a third wave, if it occurs. As a nation, we should continue to be vigilant and ready to proactively deal with any resurgence of the pandemic with more rapidly transmissible mutants of the virus, should it happen."
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