Inflation concerns serious, masks true hardships of people: Jairam Ramesh

New Delhi [India], October 6 : Soon after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its latest monetary policy review meeting flagged concerns about high inflation as the headline inflation numbers are above the central bank's upper tolerance limit of 6 per cent, the Congress on Friday said it "masks the true hardships" faced by people, particularly due to the price rise in essential commodities.
The monetary policy committee of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), in its October review meeting on Friday, kept overall 2023-24 growth and inflation unchanged from their earlier estimates, while flagging concerns about high inflation.
RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said the central bank has identified high inflation as a major risk to macroeconomic stability and sustainable growth. Accordingly, its monetary policy remains "resolutely focused" on aligning inflation to the 4 per cent target on a durable basis, Das said, as part of his monetary policy statement Friday morning.
"This simply means that concerns on inflation continue to be serious," Jairam Ramesh of Congress wrote on X, moments after Das' statement.
For 47 months, the headline Consumer Price Index(CPI) has remained well over the RBI's own medium-term target of 4 per cent, Jairam Ramesh said.
"This of course masks the true hardships being faced by crores upon crores of families from unabated increase in prices of essential commodities," the Congress leader further added in the X post.

Headline inflation in India rose to 7.8 per cent in July due to a surge in prices of food items like wheat, rice and vegetables, including tomatoes, to later fall to 6.8 per cent in August. Inflation data for September is due in next few days.
Vegetables, with a weight of around 6 per cent in the CPI basket, contributed to about one third of CPI headline inflation in July and to around one fourth of overall inflation in August.
"While near-term inflation is expected to soften on the back of vegetable price correction, especially in tomatoes, and the reduction in LPG prices, the future trajectory will be conditioned by a number of factors. For kharif crops, the area sown under pulses is below the level a year ago" the RBI governor said this morning.
"Kharif onion production needs to be watched closely. Demand supply mismatches in spices are likely to keep these prices at elevated levels. The inflation trajectory will also be shaped by El Nino conditions and global food and energy prices. Together with global financial market volatility, these factors pose risks to the outlook," the RBI governor added.
A silver lining amidst all these, according to Das, is declining core inflation - retail inflation excluding food and fuel.
"The overall inflation outlook, however, is clouded by uncertainties from the fall in kharif sowing for key crops like pulses and oilseeds, low reservoir levels, and volatile global food and energy prices. The MPC observed that the recurring incidence of large and overlapping food price shocks can impart generalisation and persistence to headline inflation," Das further said.
The three-day bi-monthly monetary policy committee (MPC) meeting of the RBI began on Wednesday. RBI typically conducts six bi-monthly meetings in a financial year, where it deliberates interest rates, money supply, inflation outlook, and various macroeconomic indicators.
Barring the latest pauses, the RBI raised the repo rate by 250 basis points cumulatively to 6.5 per cent since May 2022 in the fight against inflation. Raising interest rates is a monetary policy instrument that typically helps suppress demand in the economy, thereby helping the inflation rate decline.