The possibility of RBI tightening monetary stance further in its April 20 annual review meet became greater today with apex bank saying it could take more steps to contain inflation, even as food prices eased a bit to 16.22 per cent.

"The immediate challenge for the Indian economy and the financial sector is to reclaim the pre-crisis configuration with minimal efficiency loss ... containing overall inflation have become imperative," RBI deputy governor Shyamala Gopinath told reporters here briefing on the apex bank's Financial Stability Report.

The report said while there are signs of momentum of economic recovery, management of government borrowings will remain a challenge in the next fiscal, as also management of capital inflows, if they surge in coming months.

As fiscal deficit remains high, the government's borrowing will continued to be high. The Budget 2010-11 has pegged market borrowings at over Rs 4 lakh crore in the next fiscal.

The report said while global uncertainty declined somewhat, the structural problems associated with it remains.

It further said the global financial crisis did not affect India as badly as others. But there should not be any complacency with regard to financial stability.

The lack of prudent regulation in some of the financial sectors, like investment banking, triggered the global financial meltdown. Indian financial sytesm, however, remained less affected owing to better regulations.

On monetary policy, Gopinath said the primary objective of is to ensure price stability in the system. She added that inflation, which has already surpassed RBI's projections of 8.5 per cent could escalate further.

Inflation rose to 9.89 per cent in February from 8.56 per cent in the previous month.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had said in Parliament that he would not be surprised if inflation It may entered double digits in March.

In the face of the rising inflationary pressures, RBI had hiked its repo, reverse repo rates (short-term lending and borrowing rates to banks) to 5 per cent and 3.5 per cent respectively last week.

"Inflationary pressures could be further exacerbated on account of increasing capacity utilisation and rising commodity and energy prices ... taken together, these factors heighten the risks of supply-side pressures translating into a generalised inflationary process," Gopinath said, quoting the Financial Stability Report.

Food inflation, which is a component of general inflation, however, eased marginally to 16.22 per cent for the week ended March 13 from 16.30 per cent in the preceding week, according to the data released today.

Earlier in January, the central bank hiked the amount of deposits banks are required to park with it, or cash reserve ratio, by 0.75 per cent to 5.75 per cent.