MPC members say high repo rate cannot ease food prices

The two external members' views were in sharp contrast to others at the December meeting

- Gopika Gopakumar & Puja Mehra

Two newly appointed Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) members have rekindled the discussion started by the Economic Survey on excluding food inflation from the monetary policy framework.

Of the three external members of the rate-setting panel of the Reserve Bank of India, Nagesh Kumar and Ram Singh have argued in the December MPC minutes released last week that a high repo rate cannot bring down food prices. The latest GDP growth rate of 5.4% and a spike in food inflation to 6.2% in October seem to have unsettled the MPC's external members, who expressed views that sharply deviate from the August meeting's minutes.