RBI governor to meet senior fund executives

11 Jul 2022 , 08:45 AM

Shaktikanta Das, governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), will meet behind closed doors with foreign fund managers and separately with a small group of senior fund officials in Singapore this week amid selling by foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) and pressure on the rupee. Some believe the central banker may give large investors hints about a potential soft landing for the Indian economy during these meetings.

Recent criticisms of the RBI for missing inflation targets and being “behind the curve” in hiking the benchmark interest rate have been met with attempts by RBI officials to refute these claims.

On July 15—16, a meeting of the G20 finance ministers and central bank governors will take place in Bali.

The RBI boosted its inflation forecast for the current fiscal year to 6.7% in June after raising its February projection of 4.5% to 5.7% in early April. Nearly everyone in the financial markets has been paying attention to the changes, which came quickly after one another.

Senior officials defended the central bank’s policies and actions at a meeting in Khandala at the beginning of July to which RBI had invited a number of economists and experts.

Foreign fund managers have so far net sold Rs25,7982 crore worth of stocks and Rs26,468 crore worth of bonds since FPIs began to reduce their holdings on October 1, 2021. The dollar index, which gauges the strength of the US currency against a basket of 6 units, rose last week as the rupee, weakened by outflows and global uncertainty, to a fresh low of Rs79.38 against the dollar. Since January, there has been a 6% decline in the rupee.