Covid-19: Worst health and economic crisis in the last 100 years: RBI Governor

Covid-19 is the worst health and economic crisis in the last 100 years. This has resulted in unprecedented negative results for production, jobs, and welfare. It gave impetus to the current world order, global value chains, labor, and capital movements around the world. RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said this at the 7th SBI Banking and Economics Conference on Saturday.

In the Banking and Economics Conclave, he said that the epidemic is perhaps by far the greatest test of the strength and resilience of our economic and financial system. He said that RBI has taken several big measures to protect the financial system, support the economy in the current crisis. The top priority for RBI is development. At the same time, financial stability is equally important. The RBI has strengthened its offsite surveillance mechanism to identify emerging threats. He said that RBI is in talks with all stakeholders to resolve the problem of Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative (PMC) Bank.

Shaktikanta Das also said that implementing the RBI policy for the medium term would require careful evaluation, depending on how the crisis unfolds in the coming years. The RBI governor states that the coronavirus epidemic will result in higher NPAs and capital erosion. Raising capital, preparing buffers are important for ensuring credit flow and strengthening the financial system. The Indian economy has started showing signs of easing back to normalcy after easing of sanctions. Indian companies and industries did better in times of crisis.

Before the Covid-19 crisis, the Reserve Bank had cut the repo rate by 1.35 percent. He said that these steps were taken to deal with the slowdown in economic growth at that time. RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said that to tackle the Covid-19 crisis, RBI has cut the repo rate by 1.15 percent. In this way, from February 2019 till now, the RBI has cut the repo rate by 2.50 percent.

Explain that in the last 24 hours a record 27 thousand 114 corona have been infected in the country and with this, the total number of infected has increased to 8 lakh 20 thousand 916. During this period 519 people died and the number of dead has increased to 22 thousand 123. So far 5 lakh 15 thousand 386 patients have defeated Corona. 19870 people have recovered in the last 24 hours. There has been an increase of 6 thousand 725 inactive cases. There are now a total of 283407 active cases in the country.