Who Moved My Interest Rate: Leading the Reserve Bank Through Five Turbulent Years

An insider s view of the Reserve Bank of India Duvvuri Subbarao s term as the governor of the Reserve Bank of India from 2008 to 2013 was an unusually turbulent period. The global financial crisis erupted; India was in the throes of a decade-high, stubborn inflation rate, followed by a sharp depreciation of the rupee. This was also a time when questions about the breadth of the RBI s mandate, autonomy and accountability became subjects of debate in financial circles and in the media at large. Who Moved My Interest Rate is an authoritative account of the dilemmas and quandaries he confronted while leading the Reserve Bank through these extraordinary economic and political challenges.

Duvvuri Subbarao served as governor of the Reserve Bank of India for five years (2008-13). Prior to that, he was finance secretary to the Government of India (2007-08), and secretary to the prime minister s Economic Advisory Council (2005-07). Topping the civil services examination in 1972, Subbarao joined the Indian Administrative Service. In a career spanning thirty-five years, he held various positions in the state Government of Andhra Pradesh and in the federal Government of India, and was actively involved in formulating and implementing economic and financial sector reforms at the national and subnational levels. Subbarao is currently a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the National University of Singapore where he spends six months of the year.