Chidambaram Pressed RBI To Show Inflated Growth Estimates, Says Ex-Governor; BJP Responds – News18

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P Chidambaram was the finance minister in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.(PTI file photo)

P Chidambaram was the finance minister in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.(PTI file photo)

Former RBI Governor D Subbarao, in his book ‘Just A Mercenary?: Notes from My Life and Career’, said P Chidambaram, who was the finance minister in the UPA government, “pressed the RBI to paint a rosier picture of the economy, with inflated estimates of growth and inflation”

BJP leader Amit Malviya hit out at Congress leader and former Finance Minister P Chidambaram for “lecturing” the BJP-led Central government on “institutional integrity” when he himself “pressed the RBI to paint a rosier picture of the economy”.

According to a Moneycontrol report, former RBI Governor D Subbarao, in his book ‘Just A Mercenary?: Notes from My Life and Career’, said P Chidambaram, who was the finance minister in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, “pressed the RBI to paint a rosier picture of the economy, with inflated estimates of growth and inflation”.

BJP leader Amit Malviya took to microblogging site X and reacted to D Subbarao’s remark about P Chidambaram saying, “P Chidambaram, finance minister in the UPA, pressed the RBI to paint a rosier picture of the economy, with inflated estimates of growth and inflation, former RBI Governor D Subbarao writes in his latest book. But PC lectures us on institutional integrity.”

In the chapter ‘Reserve Bank as the Government’s Cheerleader?’ Subbarao wrote that governments are not sensitive to the need for the RBI.

“If a government asks to raise estimates in order to boost public sentiment and if the RBI acts on it, it will be wrong. The RBI has to maintain its credibility as its monetary policy stance is based on estimates of growth and inflation,” Subbarao was quoted by Moneycontrol as saying.

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