The defining event of 2022 for the world has been the Ukraine War (which started in February) - and the high inflation it caused all over the world. In fact, 2022 has been 'The Year Of High Inflation'. Controlling inflation is the job of the Reserve Bank of India - specifically the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC). The MPC's job has not been easy - they could not simply increase the policy interest rate (repo rate) to decrease inflation. One, the inflation was mainly supply-driven (due to the supply shock of the war) - and not demand-driven (which would have made it more amenable to an interest rate increase). Two, the economy was just recovering from the Covid-19 recession - so aggressive interest rate hikes would have killed the recovery.
Everybody is a genius after the event. When inflation suddenly increased in the beginning of the year, many economists started criticising the MPC for being 'behind the curve' - ie, too slow in increasing the repo rate. The MPC courageously stood their ground and stuck to their path. Now at the end of the year, the MPC seems to be vindicated. Inflation came down to 5.88% in November (vs 7.1% in America and 10.1% in Europe). And GDP grew by a decent 6.3% in the Jul-Sep quarter.
For rescuing India from the scourge of inflation that has ravaged the whole world, the members of the MPC are 2022's People Of The Year:
# Dr Ashima Goyal
# Dr Jayant Varma
# Dr Shashank Bhide
# Dr Rajiv Ranjan
# Dr Michael Patra
# Sri Shaktikant Das
PS: Credit also belongs to the Finance Ministry for following a conservative fiscal policy during and after the Covid-19 crisis - which has kept inflation from getting out of control (like it has done in the advanced economies of America and Europe).
