Reserve Bank of India Governor D Subbarao has said the battle against inflation has not ended yet and high prices were mostly hurting the poor people, who do not have a mechanism to get their voice heard.
Inflation continues to remain high and needs to be brought down to "more acceptable" levels of 5% or less, Subbarao said here, while noting that the challenge was to calibrate interest rates to control inflation and support economic growth at the same time.
"People are hurt by inflation, largely the poor people. They don't have the mechanism to get their voice heard," he said while delivering a lecture at Cornell University on 'India in a Globalizing World: Some Policy Dilemmas'.
Inflation as measured by the Wholesale Price Index stood at 6.87% in July, down from 7.25% in June. It is still much above RBI's comfort level of 5-6%.
Subbarao has maintained that inflation needs to remain the top priority for the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
"To control inflation we need to keep interest rates high, but to support growth we need to keep interest rates low," he said.
"The challenge is how do you calibrate interest rates," he added.
The RBI had cut its main interest rate in April by 50 basis points to 8%, but the central bank did not reduce the benchmark interest rates in its first quarter credit policy review in July despite pressure from the industry, which wants reduction in interest rates to spur growth.
The Reserve Bank is scheduled to review its monetary policy on September 17.
India's economic growth slipped to 9-year low of 6.5% in 2011-12.
Prime Minister's economic advisory panel has pegged GDP growth for the current fiscal at 6.7%.
Industrial production recorded a dismal growth of 2.4% in May.
Subbarao said the central bank has been able to reduce price pressures by reducing the inflation rate to 7% from 11%.
He stated, "Some sacrifice to growth is an inevitable price" to pay in order to control price pressures.
Noting that India's economic growth has fuelled inflation in the price of food, Subbarao said, "Structural inflation is a problem of India's success story, specifically the growing income of the poorest sections."
A synopsis of Subbarao's address provided by Cornell University said there is a reversal of momentum in India's growth, which stood at 9% in the pre-economic crisis period of 2003-08.
Currently, the growth has decelerated, inflation is high and stubborn, the rupee has depreciated and investment has declined.
The note said this downturn has caused widespread anxiety that India has got derailed from the high growth trajectory and triggered a number of questions about whether the Indian growth story is faltering and when would India reach double digit growth.
The Indian growth story is "still credible and the long term growth drivers are still intact. With appropriate policy and governance reforms, India can get back on track to rapid growth with low and stable inflation," it added.
