India emerges strong from each disruption, has “very strong” macroeconomic fundamentals: RBI Governor

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Asserting that India’s macroeconomic fundamentals are “very strong”, the Reserve Bank of (RBI) has said the country has emerged strong with each disruption and the present episode has opened up opportunities to further enhance the resilience’ as it has “mastered the skills” of managing the challenges.

“Even this particular episode [West Asia conflict] of shock is being treated as an opportunity for us to further enhance our resilience. Our macroeconomic fundamental is very strong, growth is resilient, inflation, although headline is going up, the underlying inflation pressures are muted while we are aligning with core inflation,” RBI governor Sanjay Malhora said on Wednesday.

Answering a question from The Hindu during his post Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting press conference in Mumbai, he said “we have not only faced these challenges [Covid, Russia-Ukraine war, Israel-West Bank conflict, U.S. tariffs and the ongoing West Asia conflict] but have come out stronger.”

Asked how confident he was, Malhotra said “confidence comes from the way the Indian economy, including us [RBI] and other institutions have faced these challenges.”

“The banks and the corporates have healthy balance sheets, government continues to focus on reforms, it continues on fiscal consolidation. Our policy frameworks are robust, institutions are strong, so this gives us the confidence that come what may, we will emerge stronger from each episode. There is nothing to worry,” he stressed.