RBI to launch quarterly survey of manufacturing sectors

The Reserve Bank of India on Friday announced the launch of its quarterly survey of “order book, inventory and capacity utilisation” among manufacturing firms, a key indicator used to shape monetary policy.

RBI has been conducting quarterly surveys of order books, inventories and capacity utilisation in the manufacturing sector since 2008.

The information collected in the survey includes quantitative data on new orders received in the reference quarter (April-June 2024), the stock of outstanding orders at the beginning of the quarter, outstanding orders at the end of the quarter, total inventories broken down into finished goods, work in progress and raw material inventories at the end of the quarter.

Data are also collected on unit production in quantitative terms and in a given quarter in relation to the installed production capacity of the target group, as well as the reasons for changes in production/installed production capacity during the quarter.

Based on the responses, the degree of capacity utilization is estimated.

“The survey provides valuable information for monetary policy making,” the RBI said.

It also stated that enterprise-level data is treated as confidential and never disclosed.