(单词翻译:单击)
Raghuram Rajan joins the RBI
Raghuram Rajan加入印度储备银行
Out of the frying pan
脱离苦海
A star economist is put in charge of India’s central bank
明星经济学家接手印度央行
Aug 10th 2013 | MUMBAI |From the print edition
RAGHURAM RAJAN is often described as one of the few economists to predict the financial crisis. In a speech in 2005 to the world’s top central bankers he said innovation had made finance more dangerous. At the time his view was dismissed by Larry Summers, now a front-runner to become chairman of the Federal Reserve (see article), as “slightly Luddite”.
Raghuram Rajan经常被说成是少数几个预测到金融危机的经济学家之一
Mr Rajan has also been right about India. In 2010, as hubris in the country soared, he warned that “growth can never be taken for granted” and that “self-delusion is the first step towards disaster.” As he prepares to succeed Duvvuri Subbarao at the helm of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in September that caution seems prescient. India’s economy is in a funk and it faces a balance-of-payments scare. The rupee has fallen by 12% against the dollar in the past three months.
Mr Rajan’s appointment, announced on August 6th, is welcome. As well as a stint as chief economist for the IMF and a star turn in academia, he has spent the past year advising the finance ministry and has been involved in efforts to get India’s reforms back on track (with mixed results). He believes in liberalisation, which India needs lots more of.
Rajan先生对印度的观点也是正确的
Yet his is an unenviable task. To stabilise the currency the RBI recently introduced a package of measures to suck liquidity out of the banking system and in turn raise short-term market interest rates (the RBI’s benchmark rate was unchanged). This seems to be working but may cause a credit crunch among firms and banks, pushing GDP growth below the present 4-5% rate. India’s position is better than some critics allow: relative to its GDP it has a moderate amount of foreign debt to refinance. Still, for now the RBI must choose between a currency slump or strangling the economy.
然而他的任务艰巨
In the long run the solution is a big burst of government reforms that would restore confidence among foreign and domestic investors. But with an election due by May 2014, that looks unlikely. In the meantime, Mr Rajan will have to face other problems. India’s state banks are sitting on a pile of bad debts. The RBI’s recent decision, in principle, to allow India’s business houses to set up their own banks is also a headache. Mr Rajan is a critic of cronyism but he will have his work cut out to prevent licences going to well-connected tycoons.
长期的解决方案是政府改革的大爆发会重树国内外投资者的信心
Mr Rajan is no administrator but will also have to reform the RBI. It is a fine institution, but a stretched one. In the 1990s it toyed with relinquishing some of its vast empire—it runs everything from monetary policy to public-debt issuance and bank regulation. Recently it has clung to its powers only to find that its multiple goals of stability, growth and low inflation conflict. Mr Rajan’s task is to resolve those contradictions. If he succeeds, Western central bankers, who have seen a proliferation in their responsibilities since the crisis, will have another reason to listen to his views.
Rajan先生不是行政官,但是他也会改革印度储备银行