OBICUS

Subject : Economy

Section :Monetary Policy

The RBI has been conducting the OBICUS of the manufacturing sector on a quarterly basis since 2008.
It stands for – Order Books, Inventories and Capacity Utilization Survey (OBICUS).
The survey provides an insight into the demands of the Indian manufacturing sector.
The survey covers 2,500 companies both in the public and private sector.
The survey represents the movements in actual data on order books, inventory levels of raw materials and finished goods and capacity utilization.
- Inventory is the amount of goods held by a company.
- Capacity utilization refers to the manufacturing and production capabilities that are being utilized by a nation or enterprise.
The survey also gives out the ratio of total inventories to sales and ratio of raw material (RM) and finished goods (FG) inventories to sales in percentages.
It considered as important indicator to measure economic activity, inflationary pressures and the overall business cycle.
The survey provides valuable input for monetary policy formulation.
The Reserve Bank of India has launched the 58th round of its Order Books, Inventories and Capacity Utilisation Survey (OBICUS). The survey is for the reference period April – June 2022 (Q1:2022-23).