In his customary post-Budget meeting with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Finance Minister P. Chidambaram is scheduled to address the central board of the apex bank here and take stock of the economic environment and discuss ways of taking forward the measures that have been taken by the government to contain the fiscal deficit and restart the engines of growth.
Understandably, the main theme of the discussions with the RBI board is expected to veer round the imperative of spurring industrial growth in which easing of interest rates would play a major part as a catalyst even while adequate care would have to be taken to contain inflation at reasonable levels. The apex bank’s mid-quarter review is due on March 19 and India Inc. is looking forward to yet another round of easing in interest rates to usher in consumer demand and investor confidence.