Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman To Review State Of Economy At FSDC Meeting Today

This would be the first meeting of the FSDC after the passage of Rs 45 lakh crore Budget for 2023-24 with greater emphasis on capital expenditure with an outlay of Rs 10,00,961 crore

To review the state of the economy amid global and domestic challenges, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will attend a meeting of the Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC) on Monday, the PTI reported. The 27th meeting of the high-level panel to be in New Delhi and will be attended by all financial sector regulators, including RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das, sources told the news agency.

According to the report, this would be the first meeting of the FSDC after the passage of Rs 45 lakh crore Budget for 2023-24 with greater emphasis on capital expenditure with an outlay of Rs 10,00,961 crore. The FSDC is the apex body of sectoral regulators, headed by the finance minister.

The FSDC meeting will review activities undertaken by the FSDC sub-committee chaired by the RBI governor and the action taken by members on the past decisions of FSDC. Besides the governor, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) Chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) Chairman Debasish Panda, Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) Chairman Ravi Mital, and Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority's newly appointed Chairman Deepak Mohanty will attend the meeting.

The FSDC meeting will also be attended by Minister of State for Finance Bhagwat Kishanrao Karad, Finance Secretary T V Somanathan, Economic Affairs Secretary Ajay Seth, Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra, Financial Services Secretary Vivek Joshi and other top officials of the finance ministry, the sources pointed out.

According to the sources, the meeting will review the current global and domestic economic situation and financial stability issues, including those concerning banking and NBFCs in view of failure of the US-based Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank and liquidity pressure faced by Credit Suisse. The council would review the progress of measures approved earlier for further development of the financial sector and to achieve inclusive economic growth with macroeconomic stability, they said.

The RBI in its latest bi-monthly policy marginally revised upward the economic growth projection for the current fiscal to 6.5 per cent, from its earlier estimate of 6.4 per cent.

Unveiling the first bi-monthly monetary policy of 2023-24 fiscal in April, the RBI governor had said the GDP growth in the first quarter of 2023-24 is expected at 7.8 per cent. The growth for second, third and fourth quarter of the current fiscal has been projected at 6.2 per cent, 6.1 per cent and 5.9 per cent, respectively. The last meeting of the high level panel had taken place in Septmber, 2022.

During the last meeting, the council deliberated on the early warning indicators for the economy and preparedness to deal with them, improving the efficiency of the existing Financial/Credit Information Systems and issues of governance and management in Systemically Important Financial Institutions including Financial Market Infrastructures, and strengthening cyber security framework in financial sector. Besides, common KYC for all financial services and related matters, update on account aggregator and next steps, issues relating to financing of power sector, strategic role of GIFT IFSC in New Aatmanirbhar Bharat, inter-regulatory issues of GIFT-IFSC, and need for utilisation of the services of registered valuers by all government departments were also discussed.