The Ministry of Finance, Government of India welcomes the First bi-monthly Statement of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) in the Financial Year 2018-19.

Earlier, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) in its first bi-monthly Statement of 2018-19, issued yesterday, updated its real GDP growth and inflation projections for 2017-18 and 2018-19.  The MPC revised upwards its forecast of real GDP growth from 7.2 % in its February 2018 Statement to 7.4 %, broadly in line with the forecast in the Economic Survey. Inflation in Q4 2017-18 has been revised downwards from 5.1 % to 4.5 %. Further, the inflation forecast for H1 2018-19 has been revised downwards from 5.1 -5.6 percent to 4.4-4.7 percent, and from 4.5-4.6 percent to 4.4 percent in H2 2018-19.  MPC has maintained all policy rates unchanged. The Government of India has welcome the Policy Statement.

Monetary policy: MPC updates growth and inflation forecasts, revises projections, and keeps key policy rates unchanged. Government welcomes the First bi monthly Statement of the Monetary Policy Committee which revised the real GDP growth projection upwards and lowered near term inflation forecasts, while the MPC maintained all policy rates unchanged; the Government endorses the updated projections and the decision to keep rates steady.