Finance Minister P Chidambaram today said the government will continue to take fiscal, monetary and supply side steps, and import foodgrains and pulses if needed to moderate inflation."The (then) government took 12-18 months to moderate inflation in 2000-01 when it hovered over 8% for 12 weeks and above 6% for 48 out of 52 weeks," Chidambaram said while replying to supplementaries during Question Hour today."(The current rate) of inflation is not as high as 2000-01. We are confident inflation will be moderated," he said.Inflation declined to 6.02% from 6.5% last week, Chidambaram said adding it is expected to further decline when wheat and potato corp come in the market. "We will continue to take fiscal, monetary and supply side steps to moderate inflation," he added.Chidambaram said demand-supply mismatch was the primary source for fuelling inflation. Production of wheat and pulses was way short of demand, and, in the long-term, augmenting production and productivity was essential to erase the gap.The Budget for 2007-08, he said, has tried to address the shortcoming on the supply side by addressing key factors like water, seeds, fertiliser, power and farm credit.
