I extend warm congratulations to the organizers on the timely initiative of organising this seminar and providing an appropriate platform to discuss and deliberate the best plausible approach on making effective use of the Right to Information (RTI) Act to the best advantage of society, without needless friction between information seekers and information providers.
Core inflation (year-over-year)  %  %  0.2  0.00 -0.02  0.0 -0.04 -0.06  -0.2  -0.08 -0.4 -0.10 -0.12  -0.6 qrt  4  8  12  16  20  Less Trade Integration trade integration  24  28  32  36  qrt  40  More Trade Integration trade integration  4  8  12  16  Less trade Tradeintegration Integration Less  c. Annualized short-term interest rate  20  24  28  32  36  40  Trade integration Integration More trade  d. Real exchange rate $  %  %  0.0  0.5 0.0  -0.2  -0.5 -1.0  -0.4  -1.5 -2.0  -0.6  -2.5 -0.8 qrt  4  8  12  16  Less trade Trade integration Integration  20  24  28  32  36  40  More trade Tradeintegration Integration More  -3.0 qrt  4  8  12  16  Less trade Tradeintegration Integration Less  16  20  24  28  32  36  More Trade Integration trade integraion  40  Table 1: Comparison of unconditional variances generated by two versions of ToTEM Effect of increased integration (per cent) Output gap  +29  Nominal interest rate  +10  Real exchange rate  +34  The results from ToTEM suggest that higher trade integration may be associated with higher variability of interest rates, real exchange rates and the output gap, although the effect on interest rate variability is quite modest.