RBI needs to take monetary action: official

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will have to further tighten monetary policy on April 20 if prices continue to rise, as expected, from 9.89 percent headline inflation in February, the chief statistician said on Wednesday. "If RBI is signaling a concern about inflation, and if inflation continues to accelerate, they will certainly do something," Pronab Sen told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday. He also said the WPI inflation rate in March is likely to be higher than in the previous month, partly due to base effect. Sen also said the Reserve Bank of India's decision in March to raise the repo rate and reverse repo rate by 25 basis points each have had no major impact on inflation.