Inflation rate will hit 15% next month: Rajnath Singh

Ranchi, Jun 29 (UNI) BJP president Rajnath Singh today alleged that the UPA government at the Centre was trying to fool the people by attributing the surging inflation rate to the hike of oil prices in the international market.

Mr Singh warned that if the government did not take proper steps, inflation would soar upto 15 per cent by next month.

The BJP president said price hike in petroleum products was one of the many reasons but the ''government should not claim that it is the only cause of inflation in the country.'' ''Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Finance Minister P Chidambaram and Planning Commission Vice-Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia are all renowned economists and despite that they have miserably failed to control inflation,'' he said at a news conference at the conclusion of the party's two-day state executive committee meeting here.

He accused the UPA government of not making earnest efforts to address the core issue, adding that both Congress and Left parties were involved in ''shifting public attention by raising a hullabaloo over Indo-US nuclear deal.'' UNI PRS DPM/src1436