COVID rise, lockdowns hurdle India's economic recovery: RBI chief
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NEW DELHI: The rapid COVID cases surge is said to have an adverse impact on India's economic recovery due to the new COVID restrictions across the county.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das termed the rising COVID cases as the single biggest challenge to the already undertaking economic recovery.
Localised lockdowns and jumping COVID numbers pose uncertainty to the growth outlook, he said.
According to Das, learning from the last year should help in managing the crisis as it unfolds. The need of the hour is to effectively secure the economic recovery underway so that it becomes broad-based and durable.
He asserted that monetary policy should remain accommodative to support, nurture and consolidate the recovery and demanding the need to continue to sustain the impulses of growth in the new financial year 2021-22.
"I vote to keep the policy rate unchanged and to continue with the accommodative stance as long as necessary to sustain growth on a durable basis while ensuring that inflation remains within the target going forward," Das had said.
RBI executive director and MPC member Mridul Saggar, too, raised his pitch on the risks to economic recovery if the new wave of infections is not flattened soon.
