RBI credit policy on expected lines: FM

New Delhi, Oct 24: Welcoming the steps taken by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its mid-term review of credit policy, Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Friday, Oct 24 said the measures were on 'expected lines' and the Central Bank will also adopt more measures to maintain financial stability.

''RBI will continue to deploy both conventional and unconventional tools. We cannot rely only on conventional measures but we will have to adopt unconventional or unorthodox measures,'' Mr Chidambaram said. The RBI's decision to not touch the repo rate, reverse repo rate and cash reserve ratio is ''along the expected lines'', he said.

''Our financial system and economic fundamentals are strong. RBI has endorsed the assessment,'' he said, adding that it is necessary to be ''calm and confident'' to tide over the global financial crisis.

The RBI will ''infuse more liquidity'', if necessary, he said, adding that the Central Bank will continue to use the Liquidity Adjustment Facility window with flexibility.

The apex bank had taken number of measures between October 6 and October 20 to inject liquidity into the system to deal with the credit crunch.

The RBI had reduced the CRR by 2.50 per cent, releasing a whopping Rs 1,00,000 crore into the banking system. Also, it slashed the repo rate by one per cent.

UNI