RBI chief Subbarao gets 2-year extension

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RBI head Duvvuri Subbarao has been given a two-year extension, Harish Khare, Media Adviser to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told Reuters on Tuesday.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor was appointed for a three-year term in September 2008 and was immediately tasked with the mandate of protecting Asia's third-largest economy from the aftermath of the global financial crisis.

"Yes, he has been given 2 years' extension.... We are putting this up on the website. A notification will also be issued soon," Khare told Reuters.

"The Prime Minister has approved a two-year extension for Subbarao from Sept. 5," a statement issued later by the Prime Minister's Office said.

Prior to taking the reins at the RBI, Subbarao was India's finance secretary, the senior-most bureaucrat in the finance ministry.

For much of his term, the soft-spoken Subbarao has had to battle high inflation in India, triggered by factors which were not always under his control, and has often been criticised for being 'behind the curve'.

The RBI has raised rates eleven times since March 2010 to battle high inflation which quickened to 9.44 percent in June.