Will ensure India's economy has a soft landing, says RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das

Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das on Friday assured that the organisation would ensure that the country's economy has a soft landing.

Speaking at a banking conclave, Das said "[RBI's] endeavour shall be to ensure a soft landing for our economy where inflation is brought down to closer to the target of 4 per cent over a period of time."

The RBI Governor added that the country's economy faced new challenges brought forth by the war in Europe, with commodity prices increasing, alongside crude prices, as well as policy tightening by other countries.

RBI's decision making prioritises the growth of the country, Das added, at the same time stressing that current priority is inflation

"The growth sacrifice is also within manageable limits," Das said at the event organised by .

In addition, Das extolled the virtues of the RBI's flexible inflation framework, which has served the country well, according to the Governor.

RBI is expected to maintain retail inflation at 4% (+/- 2%), as per the flexible framework.

"We had a huge shock coming from COVID-19, and because we have flexibility inbuilt into the (inflation) target of 4% (plus/minus 2%), the MPC decided to use that flexibility to tolerate a slightly higher inflation," Das said.

With the amount of uncertainty in the global scenario, the flexible model is the way ahead, according to the Governor.

"I feel that the (inflation targeting) framework has worked well and needs to continue. My personal opinion and also it is the opinion of all of us in the RBI that let us not shift the goal post to suit our convenience because the larger requirement of the economy and the financial sector is to have such a framework," he said.