NEW DELHI: The annual monetary and credit policy measures announced by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) — "broadly" in line with the Government's thinking — would moderate inflation without affecting growth and also provide relief to the small housing loan borrowers, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said here on Tuesday.

In an interaction with newspersons on the credit policy, Mr. Chidambaram said: "We must moderate inflation without affecting growth. Both are important, moderate inflation and high growth. And I think what [the] RBI has done today is broadly in line with [the] Government's thinking. These steps would moderate inflation without affecting growth." However, on RBI's growth projections on the country's GDP (gross domestic product), Mr. Chidambaram chose to differ, saying that it was a "cautious and conservative" estimate.

He argued that if the growth in the manufacturing sector happened to be in double digit numbers, as witnessed in the services sector, a GDP growth of 8.5 per cent would be the floor and not the ceiling.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail