High food inflation a major concern: Pranab

New Delhi, Jan 13: Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday, Jan 13, expressed concern over high food inflation.

In a pre-Budget interaction with states finance ministers, he said, "A major area of concern is high food inflation; WPI index increased by 19.79 per cent."

He said, "Collaborative efforts of the central and state governments are required to tackle this problem... Offtake of surplus stock by the state governments are not satisfactory."

"All the state governments may cooperate in this regard to lift these surplus stock alloted to them," Mukherjee said.

He also called for efforts to increase farm productivity.

The Union Finance Minister asked the state governments to utilise the cash surplus for development activities.

OneIndia News