RBI board and FM Jaitley take stock of economic situation, other challenges

The Reserve Bank central board on Saturday took stock of the current economic situation, global and domestic challenges and other specific areas of its operations.

"The 563rd meeting of the central board meeting was chaired by RBI Governor Urjit R Patel... The board reviewed the current economic situation, global and domestic challenges and other specific areas of operations of the Reserve Bank of India," the central bank said in a statement.

Deputy Governors R Gandhi, S S Mundra, N S Vishwanathan and Viral Acharya were present.

Addressing the board, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley spoke about focus of the Budget on the rural sector, housing and infrastructure while sticking to fiscal discipline. He also dwelt on introduction of the goods and services tax (GST) and reduction of taxes for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), RBI said.

The board complimented the finance minister on the Budget, it added.

The other directors of the board present at the meeting included N Chandrasekaran, Bharat Doshi, Sudhir Mankad, Rajiv Kumar, Ashok Gulati and Manish Sabharwal.

Government nominee directors Shaktikanta Das, Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, and Anjuly Chib Duggal, Secretary, Department of Financial Services, were also in attendance.