Prices to come down; bear with govt India Inc

New Delhi, Jun 20 (UNI) The chambers today again played the tune of the government expressing concern at inflation touching a 13-year high of 11.05 per cent and exuding confidence that prices would soon move Southwards as a result of a good monsoon.

They enjoined upon the common man to bear with the government which was trying its level best to bring prices under check but found itself handicap in doing so as the spiralling inflation was the result of all-time high global crude prices.

The need of the hour is to work out out-of-the-box solutions to tackle the complex issue of inflation in a world where no country has been spared the wrath of rising global crude prices.

CII, however, feared that growth maybe sacrificed at the altar of inflation and underscored the limited monetary and fiscal measures that the government could deploy to put water on the inflationary fire.

They explained that the inevitable hike of prices of petrol and petroleum products had given vent to cost push factors, resulting in increased transportation costs and leading to backward and forward impacts.

The silver lining to the inflationary menace is that wheat production in the country touching 78 million tones in 2007-08.

''With the meteorological department projecting a better than normal monsoon in the current year, prices of agricultural commodities should see a decline in a couple of months,'' Ficci said.

It added that with foreign investment inflows into the country showing signs of moderation, money supply increase would also be checked and this would also contribute towards bringing paring inflation.

UNI SR PDT VC1625