India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

The Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, on Wednesday said prices of essential commodities would go up in the next two weeks and then decrease. "Last year also, prices had risen for two weeks and eventually decreased. On a similar note, this year too, food inflation rates would increase in the coming weeks, but they would decline soon as per the government's economic plan," said Ahluwalia. Ahluwalia said the annualized inflation was expected to decrease soon. "Inflation is undoubtedly high. But we estimate that it would decrease soon. It would take time for the situation to become normal again. The government has formulated several policies to tackle the menace of inflation, but their effects will not be immediate," he added. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had earlier this week said that rising food prices would ease after July, and that he was not in favour of altering monetary policy. "The food inflation is rising and the wholesale price index has also reached double digit figure and in the month of March it was 9.8 percent, now it has reached double digit. It will continue till the middle of July," said Mukherjee. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) expects inflation to soften around mid-2010 on a normal monsoon and moderation in food prices and has forecast the March 2011 Wholesale Price Index (WPI) inflation at 5.5 percent.

Prices of essential commodities would rise: Ahluwalia