RBI's powers will be discussed with govt: Urjit Patel and senior officials

Urjit Patel says HRA revisions have to be excluded from CPI index, but, if there are second-round effects, RBI will take those into account

After the Reserve of Bank India’s (RBI’s) first bi-monthly monetary policy for FY19, Governor Urjit Patel and other senior officials spoke to the media on the apex bank’s decision to hold onto the repo rate, reason to move from Gross Value Added (GVA) to Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and the difference in powers to regulate public sector banks as against private sector banks. Edited excerpts:

The policy statement talks about the impact of house rent allowance (HRA) on inflation. Can you share more details? 

M Patra: In the Monetary Policy report of April 2016, we did a detailed analysis of the Seventh