Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman met Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das on Wednesday (April 20, 2024). This meeting of Das with the Finance Minister took place about a fortnight before the meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC). Along with this, the Finance Minister has also met Madhabi Puri Buch, Chairperson of the stock market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). This information was given by the office of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on social media handle X.
Monetary policy will come in April
A new monetary policy is to be presented by RBI in April. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) headed by Das will meet from April 3 to 5. This will be the first monetary review meeting for the financial year 2024-25. In such a situation, these meetings become very important. News agency PTI reported that these meetings are taking place at a time when the industry is demanding cut in interest rates and huge volatility is being seen in the stock markets.
Repo rate stable from February 2023
RBI last changed the repo rate in February 2023. Since then, the repo rate has remained at the highest level of 6.5 percent. It is believed that in the MPC meeting, estimates on inflation and growth scenario for the next financial year starting from April 1 will be presented. In its last policy meeting in February, RBI had estimated the growth rate at 7 percent and inflation at 4.5 percent for the financial year 2024-25. In a bulletin issued on Tuesday, the RBI had said that food price pressure is a hindrance in rapidly bringing down retail inflation to the Reserve Bank’s target of four per cent. Consumer Price Index (CPI) based retail inflation has been coming down since December and stood at 5.09 per cent in February.
stock market stability
Indian stock markets have witnessed huge volatility in the last few trading sessions. The 30-share Sensex of BSE had touched an all-time high of 74,245.17 points on March 7. The index closed at 72,101.69 points on Wednesday.
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