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Rbidocs.rbi.Org.in Rdocs Speeches PDFs MPKFS101011
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Monetary Policy: Key factors Shaping Trajectory Subir Gokarn, Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India.
Published in the www.livemint.com on September 22, 2011.
For energy-importing economies such as China and India, monetary policy is going to be influenced by global oil price movements as long as oil remains the predominant incremental source of energy
The core objectives of monetary policy in the future will remain what they have been in the past. The primary objective of monetary policy is a low and stable inflation. In achieving this, the economy has to be allowed to maintain growth at the highest possible rate consistent with a low and stable inflation. However, the context in which these objectives are pursued obviously changes over time. In my view, there are three key factors that are playing an important role in the current Indian context. Each of them has a bearing on both the monetary stance and the strength of the monetary transmission process.
The first critical factor is the maximum rate of growth that the Indian economy can generate without provoking inflationary pressures. This notion is a core building block in monetary economics, though it is typically labelled the potential growth rate of the economy. The concept is very simple. If the economy is growing faster than its potential, capacities and resources are stretched. Producers and workers find it relatively easy to raise prices and wages in the face of buoyant demand for their goods and services. Rising prices across the board then translate into generalized or broadbased inflationary pressures. On the other hand, if the economy is growing below its potential, resources are idle, making it difficult for workers and producers to ask for higher wages or prices. Inflation is low and will remain so until the economy reaches its potential growth rate. The challenge for monetary policy, then, is to find and maintain a stance that keeps the economy as close as possible to its potential growth rate. Grow any faster and there is a risk of inflation becoming entrenched; grow any slower and growth is being needlessly sacrificed.
However. The former suggests that as new capacity is created in the economy. Of course. The third is in the post-crisis period.5% seems to have been accompanied by a sharp rise in the investment-GOP (gross domestic product) ratio and a steady decline in the fiscal deficit-GOP ratio. Less government borrowing appears to be associated with a rising NIRG. the increase in NIRG from 7% to 8. perhaps because it creates more space for investment. before crashing during the crisis. As we saw in the earlier discussion.5% in 2010-11. the crude oil price. so I shall focus on it. when inflation surged during a three-year period of growth slightly above 7%. further. The second is in the pre-crisis high-growth phase. Although it recovered from that low level quite strongly.5%. monetary policy is going to be influenced by global oil price movements as long as oil remains the predominant incremental source of energy. year-on-year increases of around 30% have clearly contributed significantly to the acceleration of inflation during the current year. from November onwards. was doing so relatively slowly. Chart 2 demonstrates how important energy prices and their rate of inflation are to domestic inflation. Two important implications for the future of monetary policy can be drawn from these three episodes. between the first and second episodes. the domestic inflationary situation was relatively benign during this period. in the transition out of the crisis. which in turn will influence the policy stance. the trough of the crisis. Just before the crisis. but they do suggest that monetary policy will have to take the overall composition of expenditure into account while assessing NIRG. when inflation around the middle of a five-year period of growth averaged over 8. though rising. In India's current situation. its ability to grow faster without spurring inflation increases. it was still below $80 per barrel in October 2010. inflationary pressures quickly became quite strong.7% in 2008-09 to 8% in 2009-10 and. the composition of spending also matters. Impact of energy prices For energy-importing economies such as China and India. It can change over relatively short periods of time. to 8% in the following year. accompanied by a sharp fall in domestic inflation.5% in less than a decade. This might suggest that NIRG is now closer to 8%. The same arguments hold for other important commodities as well. high and rising energy prices have a powerful impact on domestic macroeconomic conditions. on that relatively high base. when rising inflation accompanied the recovery from a growth of 6. when the growth rate accelerated from its low 6. we have three distinct episodes of accelerating inflation following a growth spurt. more analysis of these relationships is warranted. to a currently estimated 8. as it did from about 7% to about 8. The first is in the mid-1990s. First. If they continue . driving domestic inflation to high levels. The latter suggests that for a given rate of growth. it rose sharply. but energy is likely to be the most important factor. as shown by the experience of the past few years. NIRG is not a long-term constant.8% in 2008-09.Do we know what India's NIRG is? In the recent past. During the economy's pre-crisis high-growth phase. Importantly. at what rates of growth have significant inflationary pressures been triggered? Looking back over the past two decades (see chart 1). Second.
in order to maintain a given rate of inflation. This perspective has a straightforward implication for monetary policy. does warrant a monetary policy response. high prices in absolute terms will have a bearing on the commercial viability of investments across the board. this should not be happening to food as well. in other words. at relatively lower income levels. the recently published Consumer Expenditure Survey carried out by the National Sample Survey Organisation in 2009-10 demonstrates how significant the shift from cereals to proteins has been in terms of its significance in household food budgets. Essentially. milk. they will have a negative impact on NIRG. a monetary policy response is not required. Impact of food prices Years of experience have persuaded us that food price inflation is typically a temporary phenomenon. a persistent shock. vegetables and fruits have led to sustained increases in food inflation. That this is no longer the case has been vividly demonstrated by the record over the past few years. when food price inflation has persisted despite reasonable monsoon performance in some of those years. an increase in energy prices can trigger inflationary pressures. cereals to protein sources-pulses. . If its impact is likely to fade relatively quickly. At this stage of development. which takes the prices of critical inputs to new highs and keeps them there. predominantly. In fact. which acts through its impact on demand. high and rising energy prices may contribute to the lowering of NIRG and this needs to be recognized and acted upon. When the economy is at or close to its NIRG. growth may have to slow. to go back to the argument made a little earlier. It must be emphasized that this argument has merit only when the supply shock is transitory or temporary in nature. dependent on whether the monsoon has been good or bad. Investment activity may decline. should not respond to this shock. monetary policy. eggs. The simple reason for this is that Indian households have begun to diversify their diets away from. the gap between rapidly rising demand and not-so-rapidly rising supply of proteins.to rise. which a good monsoon or two is simply not going to ease. However. Chart 3 very clearly shows the sharp increase in the price trend of protein items. during which time cereal production was increased dramatically to satisfy demand. contributing to a further erosion of NIRG. The great consumer boom-mobile phones. television sets. meat and fish-and vegetables and fruits. Even if they do not rise. motorcycles and other products-emerged out of sustained increases in the income levels of millions of households. because there is high capacity utilization and producers can easily pass on higher energy prices to their consumers. air conditioners. A common argument in the current Indian policy debate is that since rising energy prices are a supply shock. if inflation is not to get out of hand. The country went through a Green Revolution in the late 1960s and early 1970s. There is no reason why.
The response is the same. which I did not have the space to go into here. From this perspective. Perhaps the most important of these is the issue of financial stability and how it should be integrated into the broader regulatory mandate and. but it is certainly something to watch out for.Just as in the case of energy. Consequently. so it has no role in responding to it. as was illustrated above with reference to food. Just as in the case of energy. into the central bank mandate. including. High and rising food prices in a situation where the economy is at or close to its NIRG do tend to work their way through wage contracts and. . as well as global developments. Concluding comments It is important to highlight the fact that the central bank is the only component of the policy establishment that has an explicit mandate for price stability or inflation management. there is a new set of considerations emerging after the crisis. trends in commodity prices. This is an evolving global debate and it is too early to say how it will impact monetary policy directly. However. more narrowly. other components of the policy establishment have mandates that may indirectly impinge on inflation. but is also relevant to other potential bottlenecks. policy initiatives that induce additional supply help to raise NIRG. Finally. eventually. In particular. to rising prices across the board. This uniqueness will continue to determine the future trajectory of monetary policy. therefore. This means that any given inflation rate will now be consistent with faster growth. the monetary policy stance will be influenced by an assessment of how NIRG itself is being shaped by public and private investment activity and other policy measures. these must be aligned to this primary mandate. importantly. any given growth rate will be consistent with a lower inflation rate. do warrant a monetary policy response. whatever other goals it may pursue. or alternatively. an often-raised point is that monetary policy cannot directly address food inflation. persistently high and rising food prices adversely impact NIRG and.
LO OJ m en en . 0 . N a t> 0 0J ~ N . Crude Oil (Petroleum) US Dollars per Barrel Crude Oil (Petroleum) (% change '1-o-y) (right scale) ...' 0J C'0 <:> C> m C> C> 0J 0 <:> N <:> N .Chart 1: Growth and Inflation 16 14 12 C [)_ 10 8 6 4 2 0 <J) 0J ill U 'ill 0 o» m 0....} C> <D <:> C> t- .. <0 m m tOJ eo OJ m m ~ m m 0> OJ ch m m C> C> ma m C> 0J <:..". C> LO <:> ... OJ r!-..:> (CJ OJ ill c» N 0> .. c 1:> 0 0 0J v o <'J 0 0 N -eo o -- ~ en 0 0 0J « CD 0 o_ c co -v t> 0 a t0 N a "a 0 N a <'J <0 0 ~ N a 0J O> 0 a « -60 co . rn 80 60 40 20 0 '-' 0 n... <:> r!-..} <D OJ en en ... c .. <0 <:> N C> C> <:> eo C> ~ C> C> 0> C> C> C> C> ch ill 6 N C> C> ~~ ~ 0J <:> N <:> N N N 0 N -GOP growth rate --Overall WPI Inflation --Non-Food Manufactured Products Inflation Chart 2: Crude Oil 140 120 100 120 100 80 ~ -'" 60 40 20 0 -20 C <V v c... ro . v U) => -40 a « ...
livemint.Chart 3: Trend in Primary Food Prices 210.0 190.com .0 110. ~ 130.0 --------- Food Articles Protein Based Food Articles Protein baaed Elccludlng Protein Based Itema Food Elccludlng Protein Baaed Itema (trend 200<1-09) tood (trend 2004-09) Courtesy: www.0 150 0 .0 1 8 170.
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