New Delhi, Apr 7 (KNN) Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das on Wednesday said that the current surge in infections will not impact growth as much as it did last year.

During an interaction with journalists after the announcement of the new fiscal year’s first monetary policy review, Das expressed hope that the current rise in infections will not lead to an impact on economic growth, stating that factories are functional, vaccination is on and people are better prepared to deal with COVID-19 at present.

The Governor acknowledged that some businesses like restaurants have been impacted because of the new lockdowns, but underlined that Indian businesses have an innate ability to adapt and the hotels have already started with alternatives like home deliveries to make up for the reverses.

Earlier in the day, the RBI maintained its 10.5 per cent real GDP growth estimate for FY22, after a contraction of over 7 per cent in FY21.

The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) voted unanimously to leave the policy repo rate unchanged at 4 per cent while the marginal standing facility (MSF) rate and the bank rate remain unchanged at 4.25 per cent and the reverse repo rate stands unchanged at 3.35 per cent.

''It also unanimously decided to continue with the accommodative stance as long as necessary to sustain growth on a durable basis and continue to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on the economy, while ensuring that inflation remains within the target going forward,” he added.

Das further said that the Reserve Bank is optimistic about a pick-up in demand and expansion of business activity into the financial year 2021-22.