The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is not in favour of changing the inflation target even as it has failed to keep it below the 6% upper tolerance limit for nine consecutive months.

There is no need to change the goal post for inflation targeting as higher than 6% inflation would hurt growth, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said while speaking at the HT Leadership Summit on Saturday.

Quoting an RBI internal research, Das said inflation above 6% for India would be detrimental to growth. It will be counterproductive because the financial savings and investment climate will be hit and India will lose the confidence of international investors if inflation remains above 6% for a prolonged period, news agency PTI quoted Das as speaking at the summit.

The inflation band of 2-6% provides RBI enough policy space to use during times of stress.

Conceding that India has a major challenge with inflation, Das said that he expected October number, which will be released on Monday, to be lower than 7%. The last inflation number released for September was 7.4%.