Inflation will now moderate gradually: Pranab

New Delhi, Sep 15: Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today (Sep 15) said inflation has already peaked and would now moderate gradually.

"We may have seen the peak as far as monthly inflation rates are concerned with the release of figures for August 2011 on Wednesday. Here onwards we should see a gradual moderation in monthly headline inflation," Mukherjee said in a statement released on the social networking site Facebook.

The comments came after headline inflation touched a 13-month high of 9.78 per cent in August on account of high prices of food and manufactured items.

Headline inflation has been hovering over the 9 per cent mark since December 2010. Earlier in the day, Mukherjee told reporters that it will take "some time" before prices of the kitchen staples like onion and potato decline.

"Inflation in certain commodities like onion and potato are still a concern... The steps that we have taken will have some moderating influence but it is taking time and it will continue to... for some time," Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters here.

Food inflation fell marginally to 9.47 per cent for the week ended September 3 from 9.55 per cent in the previous week, even as prices of almost all items continued to rise.

Onions were dearer by 43 per cent on an annual basis, while potato prices were up 21 per cent, as per the latest food inflation data.

PTI