Rajan meets Chidambaram ahead of monetary policy review

Ahead of the next monetary policy review next week, Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan on Thursday met Finance Minister P Chidambaram.

Rajan, who was Chief Economic Advisor in the Finance Ministry before taking over as RBI Governor on September 4, is scheduled to announce the next monetary policy review on April 1.

India Inc is hopeful this time the RBI will cut interest rates to boost growth, taking into account declining inflation.

The central bank had increased a key interest rate to 8 per cent from 7.75 per cent at its previous monetary policy review on January 28.

The annual rate of inflation, based on the monthly wholesale price index, stood at 4.68 per cent in February, slipping below 5 per cent for the first time in nine months as onion and potato prices eased.

Retail inflation was at a 25-month low of 8.1 per cent in February.

The country's economic growth slipped to a decade-low of 4.5 per cent in 2012-13 and is estimated at 4.9 per cent in the current financial year.

Image: RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan