Inflation to come down to 7 pc by March: Montek

Kolkata, Feb 04 (PTI) The overall inflation would comedown to seven per cent by March, deputy chairman of PlanningCommission Montek Singh Ahluwalia said today.

"The overall rate of inflation will come down to sevenper cent by March", Ahluwalia told reporters at a newsconference organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce here.

Stating that inflation was a serious problem and thegovernment was aware of it, Ahluwalia said the high foodinflation was a "seasonal spike" and would come down.

"But I will not be able to tell you where the foodinflation will go", he said.

Ahluwalia said food inflation was high because of highprices of onion and vegetables. "Once the new crop wasavailable in the market, food inflation would come down."

He said all the emerging markets in the world wereexperiencing price pressure and the situation "is not uniqueto India".

While supply of food-grains could be arranged throughimports, this was not true for vegetables. "Imports ofvegetable is very expensive", he said. .