Inconsistent data worries top bank

Casting doubts over various finance and economic statistics issued by the government, Reserve Bank of India deputy governor S.S. Mundra on Friday said central bankers were faced with difficulty in formulating appropriate policy in absence of consistent and coherent data.

“Very often, even within RBI also, we have to grapple with inconsistent, incoherent and incomplete data sets which severely undermine policy formulation. There are also problems around data design and data architecture like varied definitions, different reporting dates, etc,” Dr Mundra said in his address research delegates at ICFAI here.

Dr Mundra’s comments on reliability of data come a day after RBI governor Raghuram Rajan suggested a relook at the methodology to calculate GDP figures, though they were speaking in two different contexts.

“There are problems with the way we count GDP which is why we need to be careful sometimes just talking about growth,” Dr Rajan told the students of a Delhibased institute on Thursday.

While these comments may puncture the claims of the government about the country being fastest growing major economy in the world, they will enhance the already strong credibility that RBI enjoys among the global investor community.

Going against the trend of considering financial inclusion as easy to achieve task, the RBI deputy governor said, “While everyone agrees that the segment has immense potential, it is certainly not a low hanging fruit.”