On the other hand, the ongoing pandemic, including the spread of virus mutations, and its implications for economic and financial conditions continue to be sources of downside risk. Euro area annual inflation increased sharply to 0.9 per cent in January and February 2021, up from –0.3 per cent in December.
We observed that even with the then 157 domestic banks operating in the country [comprising 26 Public Sector Banks, 7 New Private Sector Banks, 13 Old Private Sector Banks, 43 Foreign Banks, 4 Local Area Banks (LABs), and 64 RRBs], just about 40 per cent of the adults had formal bank accounts.