Prime Minister convenes meet on price rise - India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on Thursday convened a meeting of the high-powered committee on price rise. Dr Singh met all the state Chief Ministers and senior Cabinet Ministers at the meet and discussed the issue of spiraling price rise. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar and Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia were present at the meet. The Congress Party is facing flak from the opposition over the price rise of essential commodities. The wholesale price index rose 7.3 percent in December from a year earlier, its highest since November 2008, and accelerated from a 4.8 percent gain in November. The rise was driven by near 20 percent jump in food prices, which rose on weak monsoon rains and flooding in parts of the country, but inflation in manufacturing products picked up to 5.2 percent from four percent in November, a sign that inflationary pressures were spreading to other sectors of the economy.