Inflation rises to 11.98 per cent

Agencies

Posted: Thursday, Jul 31, 2008 at 1908 hrs IST
Updated: Thursday, Jul 31, 2008 at 1908 hrs IST


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New Delhi, July 31:: Inflation rose to 11.98 per cent for the week ended July 19 as some food and manufactured products turned dearer, justifying the harsh monetary stance of the Reserve Bank announced a couple of days back.

The moderation in inflation a week earlier to 11.89 per cent turned out to be an aberration as the rate of price rise is now a just a tad below the crucial 12 per cent. It has been rising unabatedly after petrol prices were increased by the Government on June 5.

Prices of pulses, fruits and spices went up as did the rates some manufactured products items.

Inflation stood at 4.65 per cent in the corresponding week a year ago.

This is the first official data on inflation after the Reserve Bank increased the short-term lending (repo) rate by 50 basis points to 9 per cent and also raised the mandatory deposits (CRR) that banks have to park with it by 25 basis points to cool down the rate of price rise.

However, the exact effect of these measures will be known after some time only as official data is released with a two week lag and hike in CRR would come into effect only after August 30.

Announcing the first quarterly review of the credit policy RBI Governor Y V Reddy had said that the main thrust of the policy would be to bring down inflation to 7 per cent by March, 2009.

Earlier, the apex bank had set the attempt to bring down inflation close to 5 per cent by end of this fiscal and lower it further to 4-4.5 per cent with a medium-term objective of 3 per cent.

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Comments
» HIGH INFLATION.
Posted by beegeeaar on 2008-08-07 10:43:21.919524+05:30
The inflation level has reached the feared level of nearly 12%. This is inspite of the measures taken by the RBI. The public are losing their faith because the Govt. is clearly not able to contain inflation. The common man is the severely hit.

» Upward price trend
Posted by Aish on 2008-08-02 15:34:52.578782+05:30
The upward trend in the things cases trouble for all and finally end consumer will have no choice just to accept what is happening around.

» RBImeasures ineffective to rein in inflation-inflation will not be brought down to 7%
Posted by K.R.S.Reddy on 2008-07-31 19:02:39.117478+05:30
The measures taken by RBI will not bring down inflation to 7% by March; 2009.Inflation is caused more by supply bottle necks. Monetary measures are taken to curb demand side push of inflation. Even this is not done effectively. Loans to non productive categories like credit cards, NBFC, real estate loans are increasing at a faster rate and loans for productive purposes like agriculture and priority sector have expanded at slower rate. Inflation can be contained if loans are increased to productive purpose and curbed for un productive purpose. Except asking banks to review their loan portfolios, RBI has done precious little to encourage channeling credit to productive purposes. They merely report data and be done with it. RBI is not CSO.I t has important role to play in ensuring credit to agriculture, small and micro units. It has miserably failed in this. At least now they should focus their attention on banks loaning to agri and small and micro units reach mandated levels. As regards increasing CRR to suck away excess liquidity from the market, the effect is neutralised by simultaneous increase in Govt.fiscal deficit. So CRR hike does not serve the purpose for which it is hiked because govt will release more money through deficit financing. Both ways RBI measures will not rein in inflation. It is an exercise in futility.What is needed is increasing production and curbing deficit financing by Govt.Both the means for containig inflation are not attende to.

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