Deepak Mohanty: Inflation dynamics in India - issues and concerns
Speech by Mr Deepak Mohanty, Executive Director of the Reserve Bank of India, to the
Bombay Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mumbai, 4 March 2010.
* * *
The assistance of Dr. O.P. Mall is acknowledged.
I thank the Bombay Chamber of Commerce and Industry for giving me this opportunity to
speak on inflation which is of immediate concern for our economy. I will begin with the trends
in inflation, then briefly touch upon the costs of inflation, followed by an analysis of current
inflation dynamics. I will conclude by flagging the areas of policy concern.
Trends in inflation
There are expectations that the high levels of slack in resource utilisation and stable inflation
expectations will contain global inflationary pressures in 20101. The IMF projected the
headline inflation in advanced economies at 1.3 per cent in 2010 and in emerging and
developing economies at 6.2 per cent. In divergence with the global trend, India has
witnessed a sharp increase in WPI inflation from a negative terrain during June-August 2009
to 9.9 per cent by February 2010. The increase in consumer prices are even higher in the
range of 14.9-16.9 per cent (Table 1).
While there is this issue of divergence between wholesale price and consumer price based
inflation measures, I do not propose to delve into that in this lecture2. I will, however, make
two points. First, though the inflation indices have shown divergence in the past, the annual
inflation based on the wholesale price index (WPI), consumer price index for industrial
workers (CPI-IW), gross domestic product (GDP) deflator, and private final consumption
expenditure (PFCE) deflator have, on an average, followed a similar path over long time
spans (Table 2). Second, the current divergence could largely be attributed to different
weightage of food in WPI and CPIs.
Costs of inflation
It is, however, important to recognise that by any measure the current inflation rate in India is
high. Why is inflation a concern? It is a cause of concern for public policy because of the
associated costs, especially when a large part of the population has no hedge against
inflation.

First, inflation erodes the purchasing power of money. Fixed-income earners and
pensioners see a decline in their disposable income and standard of living.

Second, there is diminution of real value of savings as real interest rates turn
negative and return on savings does not fully compensate for price rise.
 Third, economic agents base their consumption and investment decisions on their
current and expected future income as well as their expectations on future inflation
rates. Persistent high inflation alters inflationary expectations and apprehension
arising from price uncertainty does lead to cut in spending by individuals and
slowdown in investment by corporates which hurts economic growth in the long run.

Fourth, if the inflation rate is increasing faster than those in other countries then
domestic products become less competitive which has adverse impact on growth,
employment and the balance of payments.

Fifth, high inflation worsens inequality due to arbitrary redistribution of income where
the poor suffer the most as the rich can hedge against inflation.

Finally, the policy measures for reducing inflation have their externalities and
associated costs in terms of reduction in aggregate demand in the short to medium
run.
Inflation dynamics
Milton Friedman famously said, "inflation is always and everywhere a monetary
phenomenon".3 It is believed that short-run inflation dynamics is largely dependent on
supply-demand conditions and monetary expansion influences inflationary condition in the
long-run. Monetary expansion could be caused by persistence of high fiscal deficit and the
need to finance the same by monetisation. Consequently, high monetary growth could lead
to continued excess demand for a prolonged period without matching increase in output and
productivity. On the other hand, supply conditions have strong influence on the inflation
dynamics in the short run.
In a rapidly growing developing economy like ours, both structural and idiosyncratic factors
could play a significant role in the determination of inflation. In the recent years, the inward
looking nature of Indian economy has been changing. Activities in almost all the sectors in
varying degrees are influenced by global factors, be it trade in commodities, provision of
services, financing conditions, or consumer taste. Now domestic prices are more influenced
by changes in global commodity prices for a wide range of goods - a sea change from the
1970s and 1980s when crude prices were major global influencing factors.
Taking into account the influence of global and domestic factors, the overall WPI basket can
be divided into four commodity groups which have differential behaviour (Chart 1).
 food items excluding oilseed products (weight in WPI: 24.2 per cent):
First, Prices of
this group of commodities are largely determined by domestic factors and, in the
event of supply shortage, imports influences international prices too.

Second, oilseeds and products (weight in WPI: 6.8 per cent): This relatively small
commodity group has often induced sudden surge in headline WPI as there is a
structural shortage and nearly a third of domestic consumption of edible oils is met
from imports.
 mineral oils and metals (weight in WPI: 15.3 per
Third, cent): Prices of this group of
commodities are largely determined by international prices and the volatility in
headline WPI inflation in recent years can largely be attributed to fluctuations in the
international prices.

Fourth, other commodities (weight in WPI: 53.7 per cent): These remaining
commodities, largely manufactured products, constitute more than half of the WPI
basket and their prices have been more stable than the other three groups.
Empirical evidence suggests that among the above four groups, there is transmission of
prices from mineral oils and metals to the other commodities group within a quarter. The full
transmissions of food prices to other commodities takes longer, almost a year.
A comparison of domestic and global commodity price movement reveal the following. First,
the direction of price movements has been similar, but the overall global commodity price
movements have been more volatile, with a pronounced spike in 2007 and 2008 (Chart 2).
Second, the increase in metal prices have been closely followed the global prices. Third,
domestic prices of petroleum products have been less volatile than the corresponding
international prices reflecting administered prices in this group. Fourth, increase in domestic
food prices, excepting the global spike in 2007 and 2008 has been higher reflecting structural
and domestic factors (Table 3).
Food prices in India are primarily determined by domestic demand supply factors and
domestic price policy. India meets the bulk of its large food demand through domestic
production, barring few commodities like edible oils and pulses where the import dependence
is about 35 per cent and 15 per cent, respectively. In occasional shortage years, the country
has also resorted to imports for wheat and sugar though it is generally an exporter in these
commodities (Table 4). India's occasional imports of such commodities translate into higher
global food prices as the import demand is large. Hence, imports do not necessarily lead to
domestic prices moving lower.
One important determinant of prices of agricultural production in India has been the minimum
support price (MSP) announced by the Government for procurement of various commodities.
The high increase in MSP since 2007-08 has given an upward bias to agricultural prices
(Table 5).
Reduced availability of foodgrains also tends to keep food prices high. As per the Economic
Survey 2009-10, per capita net availability per day of cereals and pulses has been lower
than that observed in the previous four decades. The per capita daily availability of
foodgrains was 447 grams in the 1960s and 1970s, which successively increased to
459 grams in the 1980s and 478 grams in the 1990s but came down to 446 grams during
2000-08 and stood still lower at 436 grams in 2008. Severe drought in major parts of the
country during the current year has perceptibly worsened food availability further. In
particular, the situation is far more worrisome for pulses: its per capita net availability per day
has gone down from around 60-70 grams during the 1950s to around 30 grams currently.
On the demand side, a major economic transformation in India in the recent years has been the
surge in rural demand which has now lower dependence on the farm sector. As per the National
Sample Survey (NSS) data, the share of rural consumption in overall consumption was about
58 per cent in 2006-07. The non-farm sector consumption accounts for about 55-60 per cent of
the total rural consumption. While farm sector demand is more prone to the vagaries of weather,
non-farm rural sector has imparted more stability in the recent years due to increased focus on
the rural development, particularly through enhanced outlays under various public schemes.
Given the stage of our economic development, the demand for food items would increase
with economic growth and rise in income levels. Demographic dividend which has been
contributing towards India's growth and productivity, has also raised consumption demand,
particularly on food. As per the United Nations projection, high-consumption cohort in the
age-group of 15-59 individuals comprising around 65 per cent of India's total population will
continue dominate demand till 2040.
Thus, lower per capita availability of foodgrains and structural shortage of key agricultural
commodities like oilseeds and pulses combined with the rising demand have kept food price
inflation high. This process has got further accentuated by spikes in global food prices.
Conclusions
Recent surge in inflation has raised the concern whether the supply-driven increase could
spillover to the generalised inflation process. Prolonged high inflation even if originating from
supply side would give rise to increase inflation expectations and cause general prices to
rise. Poorly anchored in inflation expectations makes long-term financial planning more
complex with potential adverse effects on investment and growth. It is, therefore, important to
keep inflation expectations anchored so that consumers do not mark up their long-run
inflation expectations by reacting to a short period of higher-than-expected inflation.
The higher the inflation rate, the longer it takes for the inflation to revert to its trend. Slow
return of inflation rate to its equilibrium level after a supply shock is known as "inflation
persistence", which is important in the determination of the pace of monetary policy
adjustment to achieve the desired target. In our context, empirical analysis shows a high
degree of persistence, especially in the case of food and edible oil groups. This hinders
supply responses to work in a timely fashion.
Even though the supply side factors dominate the current inflationary pressures, given the
risks of spillover into a wider inflationary process, there is need for policy response.
Accordingly, the Reserve Bank began its exit from expansionary monetary policy in October
2009 by reducing the potential liquidity. This process was carried forward in January 2010
with an increase in cash reserve ratio (CRR) of banks by 75 basis points and then increase
in policy reverse repo and repo rates by 25 basis points each in March 2010. While monetary
policy action will anchor inflation expectations, there is an urgent need to address the issue
of structural supply constraints, particularly in agriculture, so that these do not become a
binding constraint in the long run making the task of inflation management more difficult.