RBI to study food demand, says depuy chief

The Reserve Bank of India will study the demand pattern of food and look into the causes behind the rise in food prices, Subir Gokarn, the central bank's deputy governor, said yesterday.

"We are studying what is causing food inflation, and a report will be submitted shortly," Gokarn told reporters on the sidelines of an ICC banking summit in Kolkata.

Gokarn said that there have been certain structural changes in the demand pattern of food. "There is a need to understand whether it is a long-term phenomenon, or a monsoon-based short-term one," he said.

Stating that the fundamental issue lay in identifying the long-term and short-term factors, he said it was important to diversify into other nutritional sources too.

According to Gokarn, rising food prices were becoming a part of the inflationary equation.