RBI to ensure swift transmission of rate cut; US tariff will have less impact on India: Governor

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], April 9 : The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will ensure swift transmission of repo rate cut benefits, says governor Sanjay Malhotra in a post-policy press conference.
The central bank governor said that the RBI will ensure surplus liquidity in the system; however, he refused to give a number to it.
The RBI Governor highlighted that any decrease in the interest rate takes at least six to nine months in transmission after the policy announcements, and the central bank will be watchful of it.
"Transmission, you are aware, it takes a little while. It will not happen immediately. We have seen it in the past, that transmission; when we increased it by the repo rate by 250 basis points, it took six to nine months at least for the interest rates to decrease in response to the policy repo rate decrease," the RBI Governor said.
"The aim really is to look at the policy rate. So if you are able to transmit it to the overnight rate, hopefully it will then transfer to the other short-term, medium-term, and long-term interest rates," he added.
During the post-policy presser, RBI Governor said that the US tariffs' impact on India will be much less than its impact on other countries; India is rather concerned about its impact on the country's growth.
"For other countries, the impact would be different depending on the situation that they are in. For India, we have given our assessment. Growth rate has been reduced by 20 basis points this year... On the inflation front, we have said it can move both ways because of the surplus and demand that is going to shrink as a result of the trade tariff friction. It may help on the inflation front. The crude prices have also gone down. So all in all, more than inflation, we are concerned about its impact on growth."
The tariff will be inflationary for the US and it is expected to slow down the global growth.
"You are aware that most of the forecasts for the global growth rate have come down by at least 20-30 basis points, not only for this year but even for next year. There is a mixed response globally for inflation, especially for the US; it is projected to go up because of the tariffs that they will be imposing."
The RBI Governor assured that the apex bank does not see any issue with the personal loan growth in banks. The government and the RBI will jointly look at the evolving situation on inflation and growth.
"As regards inflation, the average is 4 per cent this year. The average next year, we really don't know. For the calendar year, yes, it is below 4. But for the first quarter, it is more than 4 per cent. We will look at the evolving situation, as we have already mentioned," RBI Governor Malhotra said.
The RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra projected Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation for the year at 4.0 per cent, assuming a normal monsoon.
He also clarified that the central bank has no intention of tightening the guidelines for gold loans.