As inflation has remained above nine per cent throughout this calendar year till September, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called an informal meeting tomorrow to take stock of the situation.
An official termed the meeting as informal, in-house consultations. The meeting will be attended by Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council (PMEAC) chairman C Rangarajan and chief economic advisor Kaushik Basu.
Wholesale price index (WPI)-based inflation stood at 9.72 per cent in September, even though it came down slightly from 9.78 per cent in the previous month.
“The latest WPI inflation figure is not encouraging. The decline is very low... It (inflation) is still very high. The only encouraging point is it has not moved up,” finance minister Pranab Mukherjee said in Paris, the venue of the G20 finance ministers’ and central bankers’ meeting.
Twelve rates hike by the Reserve Bank since March 2010 could not bring inflation down much. Many experts believe the RBI might not pause its tight monetary stance.
“It is not a very comfortable situation. For the monetary policy stance to change, inflation has to come down and show signs of a definite decline. But, that kind of an indication has not come,” Rangarajan said.
More From This Section
RBI deputy chairman K C Chakrabarty also said if inflation remained high, interest rates would also be high.
Yesterday, RBI governor D Subbarao had said in Jaipur, “Had we not raised the rates, how much would have been the inflation? Despite so much tightening, inflation runs as high as 9.8 per cent, as of August.”