Economic Survey expected on Friday | Business Standard–10.08.2017

After weeks of delay, the finance ministry is ready to release the second part of the 2016-17 Economic Survey.

The government might table the document in Parliament on Friday, a senior government official confirmed on Wednesday.

As reported earlier, the tabling of the survey has been delayed as some sections in the top rung of the government had objected to Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian’s strong criticism of the Reserve Bank of India’s six-member Monetary Policy Committee’s inflation modelling and monetary policy decisions. Some changes have been made to the document, it is understood.

The survey is drafted by the CEA and his team of economic advisors in the finance ministry. Subramanian has been, in the recent past, critical of the MPC over its refusal to cut key interest rates in the face of low headline retail inflation. However, in its policy meeting earlier this month, the MPC did cut repo rates by 25 basis points. In June, Subramanian had reacted quite strongly when the MPC held rates. “In recent times, seldom have economic conditions and the outlook warranted substantial monetary policy easing.” He had said that not just headline prices, but core inflation had declined as well and indicated that the Reserve Bank’s “inflation forecast errors have been large and systematically one-sided in overstating inflation.” Analysts and policy-watchers are waiting to see to what extent this criticism will been toned down when the survey is tabled.