RBI launches household surveys to gather inputs for monetary policy

Reserve Bank on Thursday announced the launch of next round of households surveys to capture inflation expectations and consumer confidence.

Data gathered from the surveys, which are regularly done by Reserve Bank of India (RBI), provides useful inputs for for its monetary policy.

Announcing the launch of March 2022 round of Inflation Expectations Survey of Households (IESH), RBI said the survey aims at capturing subjective assessments on price movements and inflation of about 6,000 households based on their individual consumption baskets across 18 cities.

The cities include Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Nagpur, Patna, 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," RBI said in a release.

Separately, March 2022 round of Consumer Confidence Survey (CCS) is aimed to seek qualitative responses from households, regarding their sentiments on general economic situation, employment scenario, price level, households' income and spending, the central bank said in another release.

It said the survey is conducted regularly in 13 cities, including Bhopal, Chennai, Delhi, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Lucknow, Mumbai, Patna and Thiruvananthapuram.

About 5,400 respondents would be covered under the CCS in the 13 cities.