RBI measures helped Indian economy step out of oblivion

Measures implemented by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) through the COVID-19 pandemic since March 2020 have contributed significantly in engineering the turnaround of the Indian economy in spite of the pandemic impact, Deputy Governor of the banking regulator in the country Michael Debabrata Patra has said.

Delivering the 18th C.D. Deshmukh Memorial Lecture on “RBI’s Pandemic Response: Stepping into Oblivion” organised virtually by the Southern Regional Centre, Hyderabad, of Council for Social Development (CSD) on Friday, he said India was now placed much better to face the future waves of the pandemic in the economic as well as health sector. C.D. Deshmukh was the first Indian Governor of RBI during 1943-49 period.

The RBI’s response starting from within a week of WHO declaring Covid-19 as the global pandemic in 2020 and its impending impact across the world had been passionate woven around self-belief and resilience of the Indian economy. Over 100 conventional and above the board measures had been initiated to structure the institutions and financial markets since March 27, 2020, Mr. Debabrata Patra responsible for monetary policy, financial markets, deposit insurance in RBI said.

Dwelling into the actions of banking regulator during the pandemic, he said the focus was on mitigation of sector-specific liquidity constraints as the economies contracted badly with the pandemic. The central bank had rushed to frontline to stabilise the sinking economy with various measures pumping in about ?17.2 lakh crore into the system, which accounted for 8.7% of the GDP, he noted.