Travel broadens the mind so they say so let us tale a trip to the sub-continent and to India in particular. There the Reserve Bank of India has announced this.
On the basis of an assessment of the current and evolving macroeconomic situation, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) at its meeting today decided to: reduce the policy repo rate under the liquidity adjustment facility (LAF) by 25 basis points to 6.0 per cent from 6.25 per cent with immediate effect.
Consequently, the reverse repo rate under the LAF stands adjusted to 5.75 per cent, and the marginal
standing facility (MSF) rate and the Bank Rate to 6.25 per cent.The MPC also decided to maintain the neutral monetary policy stance.
So yet another interest-rate cut to add to the multitude in the credit crunch era and it follows sharp on the heels of this.
In its February 2019 meeting, the MPC decided to
reduce the policy repo rate by 25 basis points (bps)
by a majority of 4-2 and was unanimous in voting
for switching its stance to neutral from calibrated
tightening.
This time around the vote was again 4-2 so there is a reasonable amount of dissent about this at the RBI.
What has caused this?
The formal monetary policy statement tells us this.
Taking into consideration these factors and assuming a normal monsoon in 2019,the path of CPI inflation is revised downwards to 2.4 per cent in Q4:2018-19, 2.9-3.0 per cent in H1:2019-20 and 3.5-3.8 per cent in H2:2019-20, with risks broadly balanced.
That path is below the annual inflation target of 4% (+ or – 2%) so it is in line with that.
However we know that central banks may talk about inflation targeting but supporting the economy is invariably a factor and can override the former. The Economic Times points us that way quoting the Governor’s words.
“The MPC notes that the output gap remains negative and the domestic economy is facing headwinds, especially on the global front,” RBI governor Shaktikanta Das said. “The need is to strengthen domestic growth impulses by spurring private investment which has remained sluggish.”
I will park for the moment the appearance of the discredited output gap theory and look at economic growth. The opener is very familiar for these times which is to blame foreigners.
Since the last MPC meeting in February 2019, global economic activity has been losing pace……The monetary policy stances of the US Fed and central banks in other major advanced economies (AEs) have turned dovish.
I would ask what is Indian for “Johnny Foreigner”? But of course more than a few might say it in English. But if we switch to the Indian economy we are told this in the formal report.
Since the release of the Monetary Policy Report (MPR)
of October 2018, the macroeconomic setting for the
conduct of monetary policy has undergone significant
shifts. After averaging close to 8 per cent through
Q3:2017-18 to Q1:2018-19, domestic economic
activity lost speed.
So a slowing economy which is specified in the announcement statement.
GDP growth for 2019-20 is projected at 7.2 per cent – in the range of 6.8-7.1 per cent in H1:2019-20 and 7.3-7.4 per cent in H2 – with risks evenly balanced.
That is more likely to be the real reason for the move and the Markit PMI released this morning backs it up.
The slowdown in service sector growth was
matched by a cooling manufacturing industry.
Following strong readings previously in this quarter,
the disappointing figures for March meant that the
quarterly figure for the combined Composite Output
Index at the end of FY 2018 was down from Q3.
The actual reading was 52.7 but we also need to note that this is in an economy expecting annual economic growth of around 7% so we need to recalibrate. On that road we see a decline for the mid 54s which backs up the slowing theme.
Forward Guidance
We regularly find ourselves observing problems with this and the truth is that as a concept it is deeply flawed and yet again it has turned out to be actively misleading. Here is the RBI version.
The MPC maintained status quo on the policy repo rate in its October 2018 meeting (with a majority of 5-1) but switched stance from neutral to calibrated tightening.
So it led people to expect interest-rate rises and confirmed this in December. I am not sure it could have gone much more than cutting at the next two policy meetings. That is even worse than Mark Carney and the Bank of England.
Output Gap
Regular readers know my views on this concept which in practice has turned out to be meaningless and here is the RBI version. From the latter period of last year.
the virtual closing of the output
gap.
Whereas now.
The MPC notes that the output gap remains negative and the domestic economy is facing
headwinds, especially on the global front. The need is to strengthen domestic growth impulses by
spurring private investment which has remained sluggish
Yet economic growth has been at around 7% per annum. I hope that they get called out on this.
The banks
We have looked before at India’s troubled banking sector and since then there has been more aid and nationalisations. Here is CNBC summing up some of it yesterday.
Over the last several years, a banking sector crisis in India has left many lenders hamstrung and impeded their ability to issue loans. Banks and financial institutions, a key source of funding for Indian companies, hold over $146 billion of bad debt, according to Reuters.
That may be more of a troubled road as India’s courts block part of the RBI plan for this.
But such things do impact monetary transmission.
Analysts said the transmission of the previous rate cut in February did not materialise as liquidity remained tight. Despite the central bank’s continued open market operations and the dollar-rupee swap, systemic liquidity as of March-end was in deficit at Rs 40,000 crore.
The tightness in liquidity was visible in high credit-deposit ratios and elevated corporate bond spreads. ( Economic Times)
Putting it another way.
What is holding them back is higher interest rate on deposits and competition from the government for small savings.
The RBI is worried about this and reasonably so as it would be more embarrassing if they ignore this rate cut too.
Underlining the importance of transmission of RBI rate cuts by banks to consumers, Governor Shaktikanta Das on Thursday said the central bank may come out with guidelines on the same.
“We hope to come out with guidelines for rate cut transmission by banks,” Das said, interacting with the media after the monetary policy committee (MPC) meet.