Bangalore: Reserve Bank of India (RBI) today (Dec 18, 2003) asserted that the economy had enough resilience to absorb rise in global oil prices and said it is keeping a close watch on inflation.

Speaking to reporters after the RBI Board meeting in Bangalore, RBI Governor Y V Reddy also said there is no need to "revisit" the inflation figures.

"The economy has enough resilience, the systems have enough resilience, we have built a good mechanism for absorbing such shocks (oil price rise), even though, this (the current price rise) is not that much of a shock," Reddy said.

"Our own record in the last few years show that the economy has very successfully absorbed such oil price increases, with least or in fact virtually no disruption," he emphasised.

"We are confident that we would still be able to absorb that…and as of now, considering the current outlook, there is no need to revisit the inflation," he said.

Reddy said the inflationary figures for the current year remain what has been announced on November 3, and the RBI was "keeping a close watch".

PTI