Mumbai. Changing the monetary policy stance would be a hasty step and the central bank will have to avoid any bold steps on the policy rate front. Addressing a program, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said on Tuesday that we are monitoring the high trading volume in the futures and options (F&O) segment in collaboration with SEBI, but any action on this will be taken by the market regulator i.e. SEBI.

Current account deficit expected to reduce

The RBI governor also said that it is likely that the current account deficit (CAD) of the March quarter will come down to the figure of 1.2 percent in the first nine months of FY 2023-24. It will be officially announced next week. The current account deficit (CAD) has come down to 1.2 percent in the first nine months of the last financial year, which is much lower than 2.6 percent of GDP in the same period a year ago. This is due to a lower trade deficit.

Amid talks of increased investment after the country's inclusion in global bond indices, Governor Das said that the RBI will continue to increase foreign exchange reserves to control volatility in the future. It will also continue to increase gold reserves as a strategic part of the currency reserves.

Das said the RBI is confident of the economy growing as per its forecast of 7.2 per cent in FY25. However, this is a conservative estimate and its analysis is pointing to higher-than-expected growth in the June quarter.

RBI is alert on inflation

On the issue of inflation, he said that even though the core inflation rate has come down, food inflation is still high and there are uncertainties about inflation. In the recent monetary policy committee meeting, it was decided to keep the repo rate unchanged. However, the number of members in the committee who disagreed on this issue has now come down to two.

Reiterating his earlier comments, Das said the last stage of inflation is the most difficult. He said inflation is coming down, but at a very slow pace. He said the RBI is confident that the journey of inflation downward movement will continue, albeit at a slow pace.