RBI launches manufacturing cos survey, a key input for policy formulation

MUMBAI: The Reserve Bank has launched the next round of quarterly order books, inventories and capacity utilisation survey of manufacturing companies, a key input for the monetary policy formulation.

The 65th round of survey is for the reference period January-March 2024 (Q4:2023-24), the central bank said.

The Reserve Bank has been conducting the order books, inventories, and Capacity Utilisation Survey (OBICUS) of the manufacturing sector on a quarterly basis since 2008.

The information collected in the survey includes quantitative data on new orders received during the reference quarter, backlog of orders at the beginning of the quarter, and pending orders at the end of the quarter.

It also collects data on total inventories with a breakup between Finished goods (FG), work-in-progress (WiP) and raw material (RM) inventories at the end of the quarter, item-wise production in terms of quantity and value.

The level of capacity utilisation (CU) is estimated from these responses.

"The survey provides valuable input for monetary policy formulation," the Reserve Bank said.

While the survey findings are published by the RBI, it treats the company-level data as confidential and never disclosed.

The next bi-monthly monetary policy is scheduled to be held from June 5 to 7, 2024.