RBI playing steadily and silently like Sunil Gavaskar, says Governor Das

Drawing a comparison with cricketing legend Sunil Gavaskar, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das said that the apex bank has been acting steadily and silently. “RBI has been acting steadily, in cricketing analogy, we have silently played like Sunil Gavaskar when actions were not visible at first,” he said in an interview with ETNow.

Das said that RBI has been pulling quite a bit of liquidity for quite some time now.

“I remember in the 70s, when Sunil Gavaskar was at his peak, you thought that he was playing a very slow game, but suddenly you found that he has scored a century. So sometimes actions are taken rather silently but they are not visible,” he said.

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The RBI’s approach is to choose the shot depending on each ball, Das said. “You know sometimes you have to play front foot, sometimes you have to play back foot, but by-and-large in the last two-and-half/three years, ever since the pandemic began, we have been playing on the front foot and I think given the current moment we will play on the front foot. But when it is necessary, we will step back and leave out one or two balls and maybe go for a slight late cut,” he said.

‘Inflation has peaked’

On inflation, Das said, it has peaked and is expected to moderate. “Inflation has moderated from the peak. Bond yields at the long end are reflecting the anchoring of inflation. Softening of crude and commodity prices are also supportive,” he said.

The aim is now to bring inflation down to below 6 per cent and then target 4 per cent, he said. Das argued that several factors contributed to inflation, including spill-overs globally from areas like the Europe and USA.

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However, he stressed, that the RBI’s policy actions were primarily influenced by the domestic situation. “Our focus has been to maintain financial stability. We are nimble as we are living in a very dynamic world,” he said.