Bhubaneswar: Reserve Bank of India (RBI) board met in Bhubaneswar on Thursday and examined the various issues including interest rate cut in the light of easing inflation.

Central Board of Directors meeting, chaired by RBI governor D Subbarao, discussed the present financial situation in the country and the impact of global economy on India, RBI sources said.

The issue relating to non-performing assets (NPA) with the banks was also discussed, besides the question of interest rate revision was also examined in the backdrop of declining inflation, they said.

In its last monetary policy review on 24th January, RBI announced 0.5 percentage point reduction in Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) to 5.5 per cent.

RBI’s central board meets at least once every quarter.

Apart from holding meetings in Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and one in New Delhi, the rest of the meetings are held in other state capitals by rotation.

Besides the governor, directors like Anil Kakodar, M V Rajeev Gowda, Y H Malegam, Dipankar Gupta, G M Rao, Ela Bhatt, Indira Rajaraman and Najeeb Jung attended the meeting in in Bhubaneswar.

“The governor or any of the director will not speak to media in view of the model code of conduct,” RBI’s Chief General Manager Alpana Killawala told reporters.

The governor, according to an official release, met local bankers and Odisha government officials Wednesday evening where he discussed issues relating to opening of additional bank branches by commercial banks in rural areas, progress in financial inclusion plan and deliver of assistance under the beneficiaries oriented programmes through electronic benefit transfer (EBT) mechanism and credit support to agriculture and allied sector by the commercial banks.

Besides, Subbarao discussed issues related to the financing of micro, small and medium enterprises, SHG-Bank linkage programme, recovery climate, rural self-employment training, financial literacy and credit counselling and licensing of district co-operative banks.