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Informist, Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026

 

MUMBAI – Following are the highlights of comments by Reserve Bank of India Governor Sanjay Malhotra and other top central bank officials to the media Wednesday at the conclusion of the Monetary Policy Committee's third bi-monthly meeting for 2026-27 (Apr-Mar):

 

SANJAY MALHOTRA

* We are neither dovish nor hawkish
* Target is headline CPI, not core inflation
* There is a lot of uncertainty, but our framework is very clear
* Core inflation key to know underlying inflation
* We will take action as required
* Hope to get healthy FCNR(B) deposits going forward
* No proposal to close FCNR(B) scheme in advance
* Underlying fundamentals of India econ very strong
* Quite possible rupee may strenghten on West Asia de-escalation
* Rupee may strengthen going forward if W Asia war de-escalates

* Endevour trajectory for rupee remain orderly
* Don't want self-fulfilling expectations built into exchange rate
* Endevour there are no self-fulfilling expectations in FX mkt
* FX flows have been robust
* We had  comfortable FX reserves even before these measures
* Recent FX schemes fortfied India's external position, BoP
* NIM compression led to new norms on loan interest rates
* Loan interest rate norms to standardise rule for regulated cos
* Loan interest rate norms to aid consumer protection
* There is no major change due to interest calculation norms

* Liquidity will obviously help, may be surplus only short-term
* Liquidity is not extraordinarily high
* Liquidity surplus may peak near Oct
* Liquidity surplus is not substantial, is only short-term
* No proposal to review norms on banks leadership tenures
* Premature to talk about charge on UPI transactions
* On UPI transactions, ultimately, consumer has to pay
* See possibility GDP growth for FY27 may be 7%
* IT systems of major banks quite strong
* IT systems of banks, regulated entities are strong, robust
* Monetary policy rate transmission is more or less complete
* Monetary policy transmission about 80 bps, moderated

* Don't have any target in mind for FCNR(B) deposits
* Headline inflation going up, but underlying inflation muted
* There was lack of clarity on differential rates for deposits
* Norms on differential deposit rates for better transparency
* On differential deposit rates, we have clarified, not changed
* India agri sector demonstrated great resilience
* Polymer bank notes increase durability, lifespan
* Will test polymer bank notes in various conditions
* Hope to launch polymer currency notes by start of FY28
* Core inflation up due to variety of reasons
* Will take apt policy action if core inflation warrants it
* We buy, sell FX; high-level panel manages FX reserves
* Manage liquidity so weighted avg call aligns with policy rate
* Will change policy stance if there is very high inflation
* Will change policy stance if growth weakens
* Change in policy stance dependent on data
* On policy rates in future, "we will be data dependent"
* On rates, we will take a call, policy by policy
* Will take a call on repo rate "policy by policy"
* There is no proposal to extend FCNR(B) window
* There is no proposal, no need to extend FCNR(B) window
* Will continue to get good capital flows
* Macros are strong, we should continue to get capital flows
* Trade agreements to help capital inflows
* Trying to simplify rules on FPI invest
* Current account is in surplus despite the West Asia conflict
* Expect external position to be excellent
* Measures will help channel expectations on rupee exchange rate

* Gave projections based on currently imposed US tariffs
* US effective tariff rates are much lower
* Impact of US tariff will likely be much lower than expected
* Don't think banks are window-dressing balancesheets
* Window-dressing deposits does not get banks any benefits
* Don't think banks' window-dressing deposits is substantial
* Not concerned about banks window-dressing deposits
* We will look into specific cases of repeated window-dressing

 

SHIRISH CHANDRA MURMU
* Loan interest rate draft norms to be released soon

* NBFC upper layer list will be out very soon
* Will fine tune mule-account norms post SC order

 

 

POONAM GUPTA
* Overall econ resilient, particularly agri, rural econ
* Agri sector resilient, rain vagaries matter less than in past
* Rainfall deficiency matter less than in the past

 

ROHIT JAIN
* Making good progress on e-rupee, making new use-cases
* Making good progress on unified lending interface

End

 

US$1 = INR 95.20

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

 

Reported by Vinod Bhovad

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

 

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