The Indian government announced Monday the appointment of Sanjay Malhotra as the new governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), ending weeks of speculation, Bloomeberg reports.
Malhotra, currently serving as the revenue secretary at the Ministry of Finance, will assume his three-year term on December 11.
Malhotra, a career bureaucrat with over three decades of experience in public policy, succeeds Shaktikanta Das, who held the position since 2018. He takes the helm at a critical juncture for the RBI, as India’s economy faces headwinds.
Growth slowed to a seven-quarter low of 5.4% in the July-September period, fueling calls for interest rate cuts. The RBI, under Das, maintained unchanged interest rates for nearly two years, prioritizing inflation control. However, this stance has faced increasing pressure recently.
Both Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Trade Minister Piyush Goyal have publicly expressed concerns that high borrowing costs are hindering economic growth, advocating for the RBI to ease monetary policy.
