The Big Picture - Indian Economy: RBI's Outlook

The Reserve Bank expects India's economic growth rate to accelerate to 7.4 per cent in the current financial year on pick up in industrial activity and good monsoon. In its annual report released on Wednesday, RBI also said that its monetary policy will continue to be guided by the objective of achieving the medium-term target for retail inflation of 4 per cent, within a tolerance band of +/- 2 per cent, while supporting growth. It cautioned that India's external sector will have to confront global headwinds, but expressed confidence that the Current Account Deficit would largely be financed by foreign direct investment. The report notes that agricultural production is likely to remain strong, growth impulses in industry are strengthening; corporates are reporting robust sales growth and improvement in profitability, and services sector activity is also set to gather pace. The RBI also gave out demonetization figures, which we won’t focus on today, since it has been widely reported in the media and we would need to analyse it politically as well.

Anchor- Frank Rausan Pereira

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Nitin Desai, Former Chief Economic Advisor, GoI
A.K. Bhattacharya, Editorial Director, Business Standard
Ajay Dua, Former Secretary, Ministry of Commerce & Industry