Optimistic that growth will be close to our projection of 6.5%: RBI governor Shaktikanta Das

Further, Q1:2023-24 GDP is projected at 7.8 per cent; Q2 at 6.2 per cent; Q3 at 6.1 per cent; and Q4 at 5.9 per cent, with risks evenly balanced.

The RBI Governor further said their analysis shows that urban demand continues to be strong and rural demand has started picking up with excellent support from Rabi crops as the procurement by the government has exceeded last year’s amount.

The government’s capex is very high over the last two years, and in the current year also the budget provisioning is high, which will provide a lot of support to growth, Das added.

“There is a clear indication that private investment is picking up in steel cement, petrochemicals, and other sectors too,” he said.

On the world growth front, Das said that if their projection materialises then 15 percent of world growth will come from India.

Inflation

RBI governor said the easing CPI inflation in April gives a reasonable amount of confidence that the monetary policy is on the right track.

“The inflation numbers give me and my colleagues at RBI a reasonable amount of confidence that monetary policy is on the right track,” Das said at the book launch.

India’s headline retail inflation rate dropped sharply for the second month in a row, hitting an 18-month low of 4.7 percent in April, according to data released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation on May 12.

Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation stood at 5.66 percent in March.

The central bank in its  April monetary policy projected CPI inflation to moderate to 5.2 per cent for 2023-24; with Q1 at 5.1 per cent; Q2 at 5.4 per cent; Q3 at 5.4 per cent; and Q4 at 5.2 per cent.