Double-digit inflation is likely to continue for a few more weeks in India before the government's efforts to ease the rate of price rise succeed, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said Thursday.
In an interview with CNN-IBN, Chidambaram said that he cannot guess the new inflation data to be released this weekend, "but it will remain in double digit for some more weeks," according to the Press Trust of India.
India's inflation touched a 13-year high of 11.05 percent as on June 7.
The Indian government and the Reserve Bank of India (the central bank) have taken several fiscal and monetary steps to contain inflation, but these measures may also have a slowdown effect on economic expansion.
Asked whether the government feels achieving 9 percent growth this fiscal would be difficult, the minister said, "there will be some moderation in growth rate, but growth will not fall precipitously."
"(Given) the structure of our economy, which is about 57 percent services, growth will still be above 8 percent, but the point is we want 9 percent growing up to 10 percent. This year we can't hope for that," Chidambaram said.
Source: Xinhua
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