The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), to have first hand information on inflation from the general public, on Saturday launched the 31st round of Inflation Expectations Survey of Households (IESH) with January-March 2013 as the current reference period. The RBI has been conducting such quarterly surveys since September 2005.
The survey seeks qualitative responses from households on price changes (general prices as well as prices of specific product groups) in the next three months as well as in the next one year and quantitative responses on current, three-month ahead and one-year ahead inflation rates.
The results of this survey will be used by the RBI as one of the important inputs for the formulation of the monetary policy.
“Inflation expectations are subjective assessments of around 5,000 households across 16 cities proposed to be covered in the Survey round and are based on households’ individual consumption baskets,” the RBI said.
The apex bank has engaged Mumbai based agency Beaumont Consultancy Services to conduct this round of the survey.
Other individuals not approached by the agency can participate in this survey by downloading the survey schedule from the RBI’s website and e-mailing the same to helpieshdsim@rbi.org.in the filled forms can also be faxed to 022-26571327. The general public has been asked to respond before March 25.