RBI's pause and no change in stance may continue

A rate cut or even a hike can happen, if at all, in the second half of the next financial year

The Budget of aspiration, economic development and care for all is behind us. Let’s focus on the next big event — the last bimonthly meeting of the central bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) in the current financial year. The Budget is its backdrop. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has got a new deputy governor, Michael Patra, overseeing the monetary policy department, including its forecasting and modelling unit. There is also a new member — Executive Director Janak Raj — at the central bank’s rate-setting body, the MPC. 

On expected lines, the Budget has revised the fiscal deficit target for