RBI launches 2 surveys to gather 'useful inputs' for monetary policy

The Reserve Bank of India on Wednesday launched two key surveys, results of which provide "useful inputs" for the central bank's bi-monthly monetary policy.

One of the surveys is to know inflation expectations of households and the other is to gauze the consumer confidence.

The March 2023 round of Inflation Expectations Survey of Households (IESH), RBI said, aims at capturing subjective assessments on price movements and inflation, based on their individual consumption baskets, across 19 cities.

The cities are: Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Chennai, Delhi, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Jammu, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Nagpur, Patna, Raipur, Ranchi and Thiruvananthapuram.

"The survey seeks qualitative responses from households on price changes (general prices as well as prices of specific product groups) in the three months ahead as well as in the one year ahead period and quantitative responses on current, three months ahead and one year ahead inflation rates," it said.

The latest round of Consumer Confidence Survey (CCS) is aimed at gathering qualitative responses from households, regarding their sentiments on general economic situation, employment scenario, price level, households' income and spending.

Consumer confidence study too is conducted in 19 cities.

The RBI said results of the surveys provide useful inputs for monetary policy.

The next meeting of the RBI's rate setting panel - Monetary Policy Committee - is scheduled during April 6-8, 2023.