RBI’s eye always on inflation, yet takes in other factors, too: Shaktikanta Das
RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das Wednesday expanded the scope of his oft-repeated ‘Arjuna’ analogy to communicate that Mint Road considers not only inflation but also other factors as policy influencers while emphasising that he was not providing guidance about future actions.
Following rapid increases in the policy repo rate by a cumulative 250 basis points from May 2022 to February 2023 to cool inflation, the RBI has held rates steady since. One basis point is a hundredth of a percentage point.
“I’m not giving any forward guidance or indication so far as the next monetary policy is concerned, which is coming up on December 8.
But I would just like to slightly deviate and just explain to you our approach,” Das said at the FIBAC 2023 conference in Mumbai. Das then went on to provide two parallels related to Arjuna, one of the protagonists of the Mahabharata.
In the first, the governor spoke of the passage from the epic in which Arjuna and other princes are instructed to hone their archery skills by taking aim at a wooden bird.
“It was only Arjuna who said that I only see the eye of the parrot. So, the child Arjuna was completely focused on the target.
Like that the central bank is completely focused on the (inflation) target,” Das said, reiterating the RBI’s focus in bringing inflation down to its 4% goal.
FACTORS BEYOND INFLATION
Das then related another passage from the Mahabharata in which Arjuna was pressed to display his archery skills by shooting a revolving target by looking at its reflection in the water. Here, Das spoke about the importance of considering other factors while achieving a target.
