The overall inflation would come down to 7% by March, Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia said today.
"The overall rate of inflation will come down to 7% by March," Ahluwalia told reporters at a news conference organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce here.
Stating that inflation was a serious problem and the government was aware of it, Ahluwalia said the high food inflation was a "seasonal spike" and would come down.
"But I will not be able to tell you where the food inflation will go," he said.
Ahluwalia said food inflation was high because of high prices of onion and vegetables. "Once the new crop was available in the market, food inflation would come down."
He said all the emerging markets in the world were experiencing price pressure and the situation "is not unique to India".
While supply of food-grains could be arranged through imports, this was not true for vegetables. "Imports of vegetable is very expensive", he said.
