Households expect inflation to increase in the next one year, says RBI survey
Respondents were more uncertain about future inflation than in the past few survey rounds. February 10, 2021 / 07:53 AM IST
More households expect general prices as well as inflation to increase in the next one year, the Households Inflation Expectations Survey showed on February 5. Respondents were more uncertain about future inflation than in the past few survey rounds as reflected in the widened confidence interval, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) survey revealed.
This is the January 2021 round of the RBI’s bi-monthly Inflation Expectations Survey of Households. In view of the COVID-19 pandemic, the survey was conducted through field interviews wherever possible and telephonic interviews elsewhere from January 02 to January 11, 2021, in 18 major cities, the RBI said.
The central bank has been conducting these surveys regularly. Announcing the launch of the January 2021 round of the Inflation Expectations Survey of Households (IESH), the RBI said it aims to capture subjective assessments on price movements and inflation from about 6,000 households based on their individual consumption baskets across 18 cities. The cities include, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Chennai, Delhi, and Thiruvananthapuram. The 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 one-year ahead periods and quantitative responses on current, three-month ahead and one-year ahead inflation rates, it said.