Inflation hurting government’s credibility: Montek
November 20th, 2011 - 7:13 pm ICT by IANS
New Delhi, Nov 20 (IANS) The stubbornly high inflation has hurt the government’s credibility and if not curbed in a couple of months, it would send a signal that the policymakers are clueless in controlling the menace, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia has said.
“It is true that inflationary pressure is higher than what we had thought it would be… It’s absolutely true that we have been hoping that this would happen earlier and to that extent our credibility becomes questioned,” Ahluwalia said in an interview to private news channel CNN-IBN broadcast Sunday.
He said the government was hoping that inflationary pressure would ease from the beginning of next year.
“By February you will have the January data and if it turns out that inflation is not coming down by then, then we really don’t know what we are doing,” Ahluwalia said.
The Planning Commission deputy chairman hoped that inflation would come down to 7-7.5 percent by March next year.
Overall inflation has remained stubbornly high, near double digits, since January 2010. Headline inflation based on the wholesale price index was recorded at 9.73 percent in October. Food inflation was recorded at 10.63 percent for the week ended Nov 5, according to the latest official data.
Top policymakers, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had projected that inflation would come down to a comfortable level of around 6 percent by the end of this calender year.
The Reserve Bank of India has increased its key policy rates 13 times since the beginning of 2010 to curb the stubborn inflation, without much success so far.
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- Prime Minister meets top officials on curbing inflation - Oct 15, 2011
- Inflation to fall below 8 percent by fiscal end: Ahluwalia - Oct 20, 2011
- Inflation eases to 9.22 percent in July (Lead) - Aug 16, 2011
- Inflation will slow by March, says Pranab; opposition flays claim (Roundup) - Nov 22, 2011
- Inflation down to 7 percent by March 2012: Rangarajan - Oct 20, 2011
- Food inflation falls to 9.01 percent; will moderate further: Pranab - Nov 24, 2011
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- Food inflation falls to 8 percent - Dec 01, 2011
- Food inflation dips to -3.36 percent; RBI may cut rates (Roundup) - Jan 05, 2012
- Rate hikes will help curb price rise, says Pranab - Mar 17, 2011
- Factory output rises 5.9 percent; food prices fall (Roundup) - Jan 12, 2012
Tags: bank of india, calender year, cnn, cnn ibn, deputy chairman, double digits, finance minister, headline inflation, inflationary pressure, manmohan, manmohan singh, montek singh ahluwalia, planning commission, policymakers, pranab mukherjee, prime minister manmohan, prime minister manmohan singh, private news, reserve bank of india, wholesale price index