New Delhi: After the worst debacle of the ruling party Congress in the recent Assembly elections, finance minister P. Chidambaram said on Wednesday that bringing down inflation will be the key priority of the government.
“It is common knowledge that the government of the day will pay a price for high inflation, especially if inflation persists over a long period of time,” said Chidambaram at 4th Delhi Economics Conclave.
He said that the current high inflation is driven by high food prices, especially prices of fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, eggs and milk. However, he felt that the state governments have failed to take action against hoarders who are also responsible for high food prices.
Rejecting the criticism that blamed higher MSPs and higher rural wages for the spurt in food inflation, Chidambaram said that the argument that inflation must be contained by suppressing farm prices or rural wages is a specious argument.
The answer to inflation, therefore, especially inflation in food articles, he said is to increase supplies and “to transform the manner in which commodities and food articles are stored, transported, distributed and sold.”
