RBI monetary policy: Missing inflation mandate now a 'fait accompli'

For the first time since the flexible inflation-targeting framework was put in place in October 2016 for monetary policy making, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), in all likelihood, will fail to achieve its mandate, which is to keep average inflation at 2-6 per cent for three consecutive quarters.

Consumer price index-based inflation, the yardstick of the RBI in monetary policy making, was, on average, above 6 per cent during the January-March quarter.

The projections of the RBI’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) showed that average inflation for the first quarter to the third quarter this fiscal year will be above