India appoints Sanjay Malhotra as new central bank chief

INDIA named Sanjay Malhotra, a career bureaucrat, as the new governor of the nation’s central bank, ending weeks of speculations over who would helm monetary policy in the world’s fastest-growing major economy.

Malhotra, is currently serving as the revenue secretary at the Ministry of Finance, and will take charge of the Reserve Bank of India for a three-year term from Dec 11, a statement from the government said on Monday (Dec 9).

With over three decades of experience in public policy, Malhotra will replace Shaktikanta Das who has been at the helm of the RBI since 2018.

The new governor takes charge at a time when the central bank is in a tough spot. There is rising pressure on the RBI to cut interest rates as growth slowed down to a seven-quarter low of 5.4 per cent in the July-to-September period. Under Das, the RBI had kept interest rates unchanged for nearly two years, citing inflation risks.

Recently, there have been growing calls from within the Narendra Modi government for the RBI to ease. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Trade Minister Piyush Goyal both recently stated that high borrowing costs are hurting the economy. BLOOMBERG