Cooling prices seen RBI leaving rates steady in April policy review
India’s wholesale price-based inflation eased to a nine-month low in February as food and fuel prices moderated, raising expectations that the central bank would leave interest rates unchanged at its policy review next month.
The wholesale price index (WPI), long regarded as India’s main inflation measure, rose a slower-than-expected 4.68 per cent last month from a year earlier.
A 10 per cent drop in wholesale vegetable prices from January helped overall inflation ease for the third straight month.
Friday’s data comes on the heels of a faster-than-expected slowdown in consumer inflation, which eased for a third straight month to a 25-month low of 8.10 per cent in February. It is also the last major economic data before the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) policy review on April 1 and national elections that begin on April 7.
“For policy, CPI is more relevant and based on latest CPI reading, we expect RBI to keep rates steady in the April policy review,” said A. Prasanna, an economist at ICICI Securities Primary Dealership Ltd in Mumbai.
In its bid to tamp down inflation, the RBI has raised interest rates three times since September, even as the country’s economic growth sputtered.
While cooling prices have raised the odds that rates will be left on hold for now, some analysts say the reading on core inflation could determine the eventual outcome of the upcoming monetary policy review.
Core WPI inflation, which strips out volatile food and fuel prices, accelerated to 3.15 per cent from three per cent in January.
Elevated core inflation prompted new RBI chief Raghuram Rajan to deliver a surprise rate hike of 25 basis points in January.
That concern pushed up the benchmark 10-year bond yield by three basis points to 8.77 per cent on Friday.
“Even with tepid growth and falling inflation, the RBI is unlikely to lose its focus on managing inflation expectations,” analysts at Barclays wrote in a note after the data.
“Of late, Governor Raghuram Rajan had indicated that interest rates are appropriate now, but CPI inflation and inflation expectations will need to be lowered over time in order to generate sustainable growth.”
A central bank panel advised Rajan in January to pursue managing consumer inflation as the RBI’s main policy objective. It also suggested moving to a retail inflation target of four per cent in three years, with a two per cent band on either side. That stoked market fears it may start aggressively tightening policy soon if price pressures did not sharply abate.
Rajan says price stability is a necessary condition to promote economic growth and has rejected views of a trade-off between the two.
India’s wholesale price-based inflation eased to a nine-month low in February as food and fuel prices moderated, raising expectations that the central bank would leave interest rates unchanged at its policy review next month.
The wholesale price index (WPI), long regarded as India’s main inflation measure, rose a slower-than-expected 4.68 per cent last month from a year earlier.
A 10 per cent drop in wholesale vegetable prices from January helped overall inflation ease for the third straight month.
Friday’s data comes on the heels of a faster-than-expected slowdown in consumer inflation, which eased for a third straight month to a 25-month low of 8.10 per cent in February. It is also the last major economic data before the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) policy review on April 1 and national elections that begin on April 7.
“For policy, CPI is more relevant and based on latest CPI reading, we expect RBI to keep rates steady in the April policy review,” said A. Prasanna, an economist at ICICI Securities Primary Dealership Ltd in Mumbai.
In its bid to tamp down inflation, the RBI has raised interest rates three times since September, even as the country’s economic growth sputtered.
While cooling prices have raised the odds that rates will be left on hold for now, some analysts say the reading on core inflation could determine the eventual outcome of the upcoming monetary policy review.
Core WPI inflation, which strips out volatile food and fuel prices, accelerated to 3.15 per cent from three per cent in January.
Elevated core inflation prompted new RBI chief Raghuram Rajan to deliver a surprise rate hike of 25 basis points in January.
That concern pushed up the benchmark 10-year bond yield by three basis points to 8.77 per cent on Friday.
“Even with tepid growth and falling inflation, the RBI is unlikely to lose its focus on managing inflation expectations,” analysts at Barclays wrote in a note after the data.
“Of late, Governor Raghuram Rajan had indicated that interest rates are appropriate now, but CPI inflation and inflation expectations will need to be lowered over time in order to generate sustainable growth.”
A central bank panel advised Rajan in January to pursue managing consumer inflation as the RBI’s main policy objective. It also suggested moving to a retail inflation target of four per cent in three years, with a two per cent band on either side. That stoked market fears it may start aggressively tightening policy soon if price pressures did not sharply abate.
Rajan says price stability is a necessary condition to promote economic growth and has rejected views of a trade-off between the two.
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