RBI can't ignore food inflation while setting rates, says RBI Guv

Das said weightage of food in overall consumer price inflation, which stands at 46% currently, was done in 2011-12, and needs to be revisited

Amid suggestions for excluding food inflation while setting benchmark interest rates, Governor Shaktikanta Das on Thursday said the Reserve Bank cannot ignore it while formulating the monetary policy.

He said that the weightage of food in the overall consumer price inflation, which stands at 46 per cent currently, was done in 2011-12, and needs to be revisited, and added that analysis work is going on by the National Statistical Office.

“The MPC (monetary policy committee) may look through high food inflation if it is transitory; but in an environment of persisting high food inflation, as we are experiencing now, the MPC cannot afford to do so,” Das said in his policy review statement.