A biography for Urjit Patelhasn’t been written yet.
“The lack of a consistent policy from major economies is the main source of volatility.”
“An owl is traditionally a symbol of wisdom, so we are neither doves nor hawks but owls, and we are vigilant when others are resting.”
“It is important to recognise near- and medium-term risks to the inflation outlook.”
“It is easy and quick to fritter away gains regarding macroeconomic stability.”
“Monetary policy transmission encompasses the whole continuum of interest rates; of course, the central bank only determines the overnight policy rate.”
“Very few countries grow at high rate if inflation is high and volatile. I think, in a way, we are doing our bit to support a higher growth rate, but on a durable basis.”
“Growth is always there in the MPC's scheme of things; we don't lose sight of that, but not at the cost of inflation.”
“The RBI is interacting with the banks every day.”
“The materialisation of reforms in the form of rollout of the GST, the institution of Indian Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, and the abolition of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board should boost investor and investment confidence.”
“Divestment measures would improve overall banking sector health.”
“Yes, 4% is the government-mandated target to the MPC. The plus/minus 2 percentage-point upper and lower bands are the tolerance levels specified by the government. If we breach those for three consecutive quarters, we need to inform the government of why that happened and what we propose to do to bring inflation within the two bands.”
“There are some things that are under our control, and that is to ensure that we ourselves follow sound macroeconomic stability rules.”
“Enhanced transparency has helped to reinforce the stability of India's financial system.”
“The staff members of all banks have worked very hard, and we all owe them our gratitude.”
“This is a once in a lifetime event. It is very rare to remove 86% of the currency in circulation in one go. The logistics of such an operation are mammoth.”
“People were holding high denomination notes to keep tax unaccounted for money. Some sectors like real estate were using cash to avoid tax.”
“I think that is a very important milestone in our economic history that the monetary policy is now determined through a committee process where there are both independent committee members and representation from the RBI.”
“If one sees far, structural changes that come with temporary disruptions can be growth- and efficiency-augmenting in the medium to long term.”
“The monetary policy committee could either keep rates constant, increase them, or bring them down. There are three options possible compared to when it is accommodative.”
“As many have pointed out, it is not clear that we need so many public sector banks. The system could be better off if they are consolidated into fewer but healthier banks.”