Date:28/04/2005 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2005/04/28/stories/2005042805781600.htm

Business

RBI breaks tradition

Special Correspondent

CHENNAI: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has this year rendered the issue of its Annual Policy Statement more user-friendly, by releasing in advance by a day its document on "Macroeconomic and Monetary Developments" that normally accompanies and appears as a preface to the annual policy statement.

The apex bank on Wednesday released the 90-page document on macroeconomic and monetary developments during 2004-05, detailing trends in economic growth, savings and investment, monetary and liquidity conditions, fiscal situation, financial markets and the external economy, to serve as a "backdrop to the context and rationale of the monetary policy formulation".

Gross domestic product (GDP) growth at 6.9 per cent, firming up of industrial recovery, shortfall in tax collections vis-a-vis budget estimates, a sharp rise in non-food credit, "supply side pressures" on the domestic inflation scenario, strengthened investor interest in public issues of capital and a swing in the external current account from surplus to a "modest deficit" are among the features of the economy last year which have been highlighted by the RBI. The document can be accessed at www.rbi.org.in