RBI report on inflation failure can't be made public, says government

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has submitted its report to government on the breach of inflation target for three consecutive quarters but the provision in the law doesn't allow the report to be made public, said government in Parliament on 12 December.

"RBI has furnished a Report to the Central Government, as mandated under
Section 45ZN of the RBI Act, 1934 and Regulation 7 of RBI Monetary Policy Committee and Monetary Policy process Regulations, 2016," said Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary to a query in Parliament.

However, the report cannot be made public as mandated by the provisions of the RBI Act, 1934, and Regulations, the minister said.

The average inflation remained above the upper tolerance level of the inflation target of 6 per cent for three consecutive quarters during January-September, 2022.

The MPC is mandated to keep inflation in the 2 per cent to 6 per cent band as per the rule. Inflation recorded at 6.3 per cent in the January-March quarter, 7.3 per cent in the April-June quarter and 7 per cent in the July-September quarter.

The RBI on December 7 retained  its retail inflation forecast for the current financial year at 6.7 percent.

“The battle against inflation is not over,” Das said while announcing a 35-basis-point increase in the repo rate to 6.25 percent.

The central bank forecasts the CPI inflation to be around 6.6 percent in October-December 2022, 5.9 percent in January-March 2023, 5.0 percent in April-June 2023, and 5.4 percent in July-September 2023.

With retail prices rising 6.77 percent in October, CPI inflation has now spent 10 straight months above the 6 percent upper bound of the mandated range. Inflation has also been above the medium-term target of 4 percent for more than three years now.