Inflation may come down by March next: Rangarajan

Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council Chairman C Rangarajan today said inflation, a matter of concern, may come down to 7% by March 2012.

There could be a significant easing of inflation in the last quarter of the fiscal and inflation may come down to 7% in March 2012, he said speaking at a function here. Managing inflationary pressures was the biggest challenge, he added.

The rationalisation process in the pricing of petroleum products was still to be completed and this may have an impact on price levels in the coming months, the former RBI Governor said. Factoring all these, the headline WPI inflation would remain high till December this year, he added.

The headline inflation was 9.7 per cent in September. Food inflation rose to 12.21 per cent for the week ended October 22. The high inflation seen in the last two years is due to certain severe supply constraints, particularly of farm products, Rangarajan said.

Noting that the industrial production has remained 'subdued' in the last few months, he said it was important for the monetary authorities to focus primarily on 'taming' inflation which has remained above 9 per cent continuously for more than 10 months.

The regime of tightening can come to an end as inflation shows definite signs of decline, he said. Pointing that there was need to remain committed to maintain inflation at low levels, he said high growth does not warrant a higher level of inflation.

"We must use all our policy instruments interventions in the foodgrains market, monetary policy and fiscal policy to bring down the current inflation and re-anchor inflationary expectations to the 5 per cent comfort zone', he said.