Viral Acharya unable to continue as deputy governor beyond July 23: RBI

RBI Deputy Governor Viral Acharya quits six months before the scheduled end to his tenure. This is the second high profile resignation in the past six months at the Central Bank.

New Delhi: RBI Deputy Governor Viral Acharya, who was in-charge of the monetary policy department, has resigned on Monday, six months before the scheduled end of his term.

The sources said that Acharya, who joined as the RBI Deputy Governor in January 2017, was against the central bank's decision on repeated cuts of repo rates to support the government's public spending and consumption boost measures to tackle the slowing growth.

Acharya viewed such steps as putting fiscal discipline into risk and he did not want to be part of "those decisions", sources said.

Confirming the development, the RBI said in a statement: "Viral V. Acharya submitted a letter to the RBI informing that due to unavoidable personal circumstances, he is unable to continue his term as a Deputy Governor of RBI beyond July 23, 2019. Consequential action arising from his letter is under consideration."

Acharya has not commented on the matter yet.

This is the second high profile resignation in the past six months at the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

In December, governor Urjit Patel resigned nearly nine months before the end of his scheduled term over the alleged differences with the union government.

The RBI is now left with three deputy governors N S Vishwanathan, B P Kanungo and M K Jain.

Acharya, a New York University economics professor who once called himself the 'poor man's Raghuram Rajan', was appointed for three years.

He took over at a time when the central bank was facing criticism for repeated changes in the rules related to deposit and withdrawal of money, post-demonetisation.

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