The December issue of the Bulletin contains five special articles: Quarterly Industrial Outlook Survey: July-September 2010 - (51st Round), Inflation Expectations Survey of Households - September 2010 - (21st Round), Report of the Working Group on Balance of Payments Manual for India, Central Government Finances: April-September 2010 and India's Foreign Trade: April-September 2010.

Highlights of special articles:

1. Quarterly Industrial Outlook Survey: July-September 2010 (51^st Round)

The article presents the findings of Industrial Outlook Survey conducted for July-September 2010 quarter, the 51st round in the series. It gives the assessment of business situation of companies in manufacturing sector, for the quarter July-September 2010, and their expectations for the ensuing quarter October-December 2010.

Main Findings

The article presents the findings of Inflation Expectations Survey of Households for July-September 2010 quarter, the 21st round in the series. The survey sheds light on the inflation expectations of 4000 households across 12 cities for the next quarter (October- December 2010) and for the next year (October 2010- September 2011). The survey captures the expectations of inflation for a respondent's own basket of consumption. Therefore, the inflation rates from this survey represent the inflation expectations of 4000 urban households based on their individual consumption baskets and, hence, these rates are not to be considered as predictors of any official measure of inflation.

Main Findings

3. Report of the Working Group on Balance of Payments Manual for India

The Working Group on Balance of Payments Manual for India (Chairman: Shri Deepak Mohanty) was constituted to examine the current practices, procedures of compilation, presentation, coverage and sources of India's balance of payments statistics in relation to international best practices and also to bring out a comprehensive Balance of Payments Manual for India.The Group has submitted its Report to Deputy Governor, Dr. Subir Gokarn on October 13, 2010.

The Report has two parts. Part I discusses various issues relating to India's Balance of Payments statistics and makes a number of suggestions to improve compilation, coverage and presentation of India's balance of payments (BoP) consistent with international best practices. Part II presents the revised Balance of Payments Manual for India, drawing from the international best practices as suggested by the IMF's BoP Manual. Besides discussing the concepts and documenting the compilation methods pertaining to various accounts of the BoP, the Manual has made a detailed assessment of the current practices of compilation, data sources and presentation of BoP in India against the backdrop of the significant changes introduced by the IMF's latest Manual (BPM6). The Report can be accessed at www.rbi.org.in

4. Central Government Finances: April-September 2010

The article reviews the finances of the Central Government during the first half of 2010-11, as released by the Controller General of Accounts in October 2010. This article covers the details of the receipts and expenditures of the Central Government during the period under review.

Main Findings

The article reviews the performance of India's merchandise trade during 2010-11 (April-September) on the basis of data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics (DGCI&S). The article also covers disaggregated commodity-wise and direction-wise analysis of India's trade during the period 2010-11 (April-June).

Main Findings

Ajit Prasad
Assistant General Manager

Press Release : 2010-2011/805