No need to panic though India’s Jan inflation likely rose: RBI head

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Shaktikanta Das recently said the central bank is committed to its inflation mandate and the likely uptick in January inflation towards the upper end of its target band is not worth panicking. Das said this after a discussion with finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman and the central bank's board in a post-budget meeting.

"Today's inflation print is expected to be around 6 per cent. So that should not surprise or create any alarm, because we have taken that into consideration," Das was quoted as saying by Indian media reports.

"There's a sort of major delicate balance between inflation and growth and the Reserve Bank is fully aware of its commitment to inflation," he added.

The inflation trajectory in India has been on a downward slope since October and despite global crude oil prices having spiked in recent weeks, the central bank had taken into account all scenarios, he said.

RBI's monetary policy committee last week kept rates and its stance unchanged to ensure a broad-based recovery and projected retail inflation to ease to 4.5 per cent in the next fiscal.

Das also said RBI is working on the borrowing programme for the next fiscal, while the country's inclusion in global bond indexes is also a work in progress.

The government's decision to sell sovereign green bonds will also help widen the foreign investor base, he added.