New Delhi
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is closely monitoring the fallout from the West Asia conflict and will not make firm commitments on the future path of interest rates, Governor Sanjay Malhotra has said, adding that prolonged supply disruptions risk embedding inflation into India’s broader price level. In his speech at Princeton University in the US, Malhotra said the ongoing conflict poses a direct threat to the Indian economy given the region’s outsized role in the country’s trade. Moreover, West Asia accounts for roughly one-sixth of India’s exports, one-fifth of its imports, half of its crude oil imports, two-fifths of its fertiliser imports, and nearly two-fifths of inward remittances.