RBI launches surveys on consumer confidence, inflation expectations

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday announced the launch of the latest round of its surveys to capture consumer confidence and inflation expectations from households, which are useful inputs for monetary policy.

The central bank has been regularly conducting the Consumer Confidence Survey (CCS) and the Inflation Expectations Survey of Households (IESH).

The results of these surveys "provide useful inputs for monetary policy", the RBI said while announcing the launch of September 2020 round of CCS and IESH through two statements.

The next meeting of the RBI governor-headed Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is scheduled for September 29-30 and October 1, 2020.

The CCS survey seeks "qualitative responses" from households, regarding their sentiments on general economic situation, employment scenario, price level, households' income and spending.

The survey is conducted regularly in 13 cities -- Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Bhopal, Chennai, Delhi, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Patna and Thiruvananthapuram. The survey covers about 5,400 respondents across 13 cities.

The IESH survey aims to capture subjective assessments on price movements and inflation, of about 6,000 households, based on their individual consumption baskets, across 18 cities.

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

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

The studies will be conducted by a Mumbai-based agency on behalf of the RBI over telephone (instead of the regular personal interview mode) in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.