India against credit curbs to check price rise: MukherjeeIndia News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has said that the government opposes tighter monetary policy to curb rising food prices as this would hit economic growth of the country. "To prevent the adverse impact of the rising prices of essential commodities, we are encouraging imports where there is short supply," Mukherjee said on the sidelines of a conference here on Saturday. "These measures we are taking, but at this point of time, I cannot accept the dear money policy or credit curbing because that will have an adverse impact on overall growth," he added. The Minister further said that withdrawing a stimulus package would take some time. "The government would take into account economic growth in the next few quarters before doing so," he said. The country's economy grew 6.7 per cent in 2008-09, slower than rates of nine per cent or more in the previous three years. Policymakers expect growth to slow towards six per cent in 2009-10 due to lower farm output.