##bfcs, where the underlying assets were loans against gold jewellery, and purchase / assignment of gold loan portfolio from nbfcs were not eligible for classification under agriculture. such pool of loan assets against gold jewellery is generally extended by these nbfcs without proper credit appraisal and without verification of end use of funds. some of our special scrutinies have confirmed this aspect. in the revised guidelines, such investments and outright purchases do not qualify for psl status. other highlights 30. a few other highlights of the revised guidelines are : ( i ) loans to individuals for educational purposes, including for vocational courses upto rs. 10 lakh in india and rs. 20 lakh abroad : the limits are not changed. however, the vocational courses were added recently under this. ( ii ) loans to individuals for setting up off - grid solar and other off - grid renewable energy solutions for households : this was not allowed in the pre - revised guidelines. bis central bankers ’ speeches management information system ( mis ) 31. let me now turn to an area which is absolutely critical. there are several gaps in data on priority sector coverage and the existing data is not fully reliable. in the light of this, it was decided against prescribing fresh targets under priority sector. we, however, emphasize that there is an urgent need for data cleansing so that we are able to generate fast, reliable and consistent mis on the coverage of priority sector lending across all sections of the economy. this would prove to be a valuable input for refining our policy framework and strategies in this area. a separate circular would be issued on this subject. 32. one of the objectives of the revised guidelines is to ensure greater transparency in priority sector lending. i would urge banks to work towards this goal by having the courage and conviction to highlight any shortfall in achieving the targets instead of including ineligible loans under priority sector category. the generation of reliable mis would be crucial to attaining this transparency. conclusion 33. the priority that senior management of banks accord to priority sector would determine the success of our efforts in this area. without this commitment, it would not be possible to accomplish this task. let me assure you that the top management at the reserve bank is fully committed to this goal, as is evident from the amount of time we spend on this subject at our meetings and outreach visits and the number of enabling policy initiatives that we have taken in this regard. financial inclusion and priority sector credit are closely interconnected subjects as financial inclusion is

is also relevant that the prices that australian households pay for utilities are little changed and have not gone up sharply like the prices of utilities in europe. rent inflation has also been lower in australia than elsewhere. looking ahead, we expect a further lift in underlying inflation. there is also likely to be a shift in the drivers of inflation. our central forecast is that underlying inflation will increase to 3¼ per cent in the coming quarters, before easing to around 2¾ per cent. this increase in the short term primarily reflects the ongoing effects of supply - side disruptions, most recently due to omicron, at a time of strong demand. as these supply - side pressures are resolved, some of the current upward pressure on prices is expected to abate. an offset to this, though, is expected to be stronger growth in labour costs due to the tighter labour market. wages growth has picked up recently, but only to the low rate prevailing before the pandemic. the vast bulk of australians are still experiencing wages increase of no more than 2 point something per cent, although there are areas where the increases are much larger than this and non - wage benefits are also increasing. a further pick - up in overall wages growth is expected, although this is likely to be a gradual process given the institutional features of our labour market – including multi - year enterprise agreements, an annual review of award wages and publicsector wages policies. we are also expecting broader measures of labour costs to pick up faster than the wage price index. there is, however, more than the usual degree of uncertainty around the outlook for inflation and wages. it is still unclear as to whether, and at what pace, the demand for goods will normalise as infection rates decline. the speed at which the supply side of the economy can respond to changes in the demand side is also uncertain. and we have no contemporary experience to assess how wage outcomes will evolve at a national unemployment rate below 4 per cent. a broader uncertainty is the extent to which other central banks will have to increase interest rates to return inflation to lower rates. central banks and financial markets expect that a decline in inflation to target can be achieved without real policy interest rates returning to positive territory. it is entirely possible, though, that countries with higher inflation rates will need a bigger adjustment in interest rates than currently anticipated. if so, this could result in an abrupt adjustment in financial conditions. 2 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches monetary policy i would now like to turn to australian