Shaktikanta Das, the governor of the Reserve Bank of India, said on Wednesday that although the central bank has changed its monetary policy stance to a more lenient neutral one in an effort to promote growth, this did not result in an immediate interest rate decrease. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is expected to meet again in December 2024.

“A change in stance does not mean there will be a rate cut in the very next monetary policy meeting,” the RBI Governor said at a media event held here.

“A rate cut at this stage would be very risky,” he added, adding that inflation still had a lot of upside potential.

“The data that is coming in is mixed, but overall, the underlying activities are still strong and the positives outweigh the negatives,” Das said. It should be mentioned that a lot of experts have been raising worries about growth, particularly when official statistics revealed that growth in the first quarter of FY25 had slowed to a 15-quarter low of 6.7%. Though some predict it would be less than 7%, the RBI has been sticking to its forecast of 7.2% real GDP growth for FY25. Das explained the good reasons driving the figure up and the negative aspects dragging it down, adding that the RBI uses over 70 high-speed indicators to arrive at its estimations.

For the tenth consecutive meeting, the RBI maintained interest rates at its monetary policy review. However, they revised their monetary policy stance from “withdrawal of accommodation” to “neutral.”