Washington: Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan has described Indian economy as ‘the one-eyed man’ being king in the land of blind.
“I think we have still to get to a place where we feel satisfied. We have this saying -- ‘In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king’. We are a little bit that way,” Rajan said when asked for his take on the ‘bright spot’ theory and what was his “secret sauce” to ensure this positioning.
Amid gloomy global economic conditions, Indian economy has been described by many as one of the few bright spots, including by International Monetary Fund (IMF), while RBI under Rajan has also been credited with necessary steps to minimise the impact of external shocks on the country’s financial system.
“We feel things are turning to the point where we could achieve what we believe is our medium-run growth potential. Because things are falling into place. Investment is starting to pick up strongly. We have a fair degree of macro-stability. Of course, not immune to every shock, but immune to a fair number of shocks,” Rajan said.
Also Read: More rate cuts if monsoon is good, promises Rajan
“A bunch of good things have happened in India, but there were still some things to do,” Rajan, known to have frank views on state of affairs in the Indian and global economy, added.
Rajan, a former chief economist of the IMF and an on-leave professor of finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, was in Washington for Spring Meetings of the World Bank and the IMF, as also for the G20 Meeting of Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors.
He listed out achievements on fronts like current account and fiscal deficit and said inflation has come down from 11% to below 5%, making room for interest rates to come down.
“Of course, structural reforms are ongoing. The government is engaged in bringing out a new bankruptcy code. There is Goods and Services Tax on the anvil. But there is a lot of exciting stuff which is already happening,” he said.
Rajan recalled a new platform he launched last week that allows mobile-to-mobile transfers between any two bank accounts in India.
“It is a public platform, so anybody can participate. It is not owned by any one company unlike Apple Pay or Android Pay or whatever. I think it is the first of its kind. So, technological developments are happening and making for a more, hopefully, reasonable life for a lot of people. Let’s see how it goes,” he said.
‘Monsoon, a very important factor in India’
Rajan refused to call his monetary policy actions ‘opportunistic easing’ and said RBI was still in an accommodative phase. He has been saying rates can come down further if inflation cools further and monsoon turns out to be good.
“Now, given all the pushes and pulls in the global economy, you can forecast but you’re not quite sure your forecast will come out. So, we’re sort of a little more data-driven than we would be in more normal times. As the data come in and we get more certainty about how things are playing out, we will act accordingly,” he said.
“It does significantly influence sentiment in rural areas, rural demand. It certainly affects about 50 per cent of our population which is tied in some way to agriculture. Only 15 per cent of value-added is agriculture and that is still falling, but many people have rural links. So, the monsoon does impact all that,” the RBI Governor said.
“It has a moderate impact on food prices because good food management can alleviate the effect of the monsoon. But if we have a bountiful monsoon, then we don’t need effective food management to get lower food prices. We are all keeping our fingers crossed. The good news seems to be that the meteorological department is saying it is probably going to be a good monsoon,” he concluded.
PTI
