INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
The Reserve Bank of India has kept interest rates unchanged for more than a year, and stuck to a relatively hawkish stance given inflation
ministry, is discussing a proposal to reduce the weight of food in the consumer price basket by as much as 8 percentage points, according to
the person, who asked not to be identified as the discussions are private
surveyed in 2011-2012, which economists say are outdated and may be distorting the official inflation data the central bank uses to set
More recent surveys show consumers are spending less of their budget on food than they did a decade ago
Bloomberg Economics estimates inflation in June was 70 basis points higher than it would have been using new weights.
A spokesman for the
Bank of India has kept interest rates unchanged for more than a year, and stuck to a relatively hawkish stance given inflation is above its
high weighting in the CPI basket
In June, food prices rose 9.36 per cent from a year earlier, pushing up the headline inflation rate to 5.08 per cent
Excluding food and energy costs, inflation was 3.15 per cent.
A revision of the CPI, which currently has some 299 items, would see
redundant items such as horse cart fares, prices for video cassette recorders, and costs of audio and video cassettes likely weeded out of
The government panel is also discussing including consumer electronic products, such as smartphones in the updated index, the person
The revisions are based on results of new consumer spending surveys, which the statistics ministry is still finalizing
