India’s inflation rate to come off from December onwards, says Deepak Parekh

Deepak Parekh, Former Chairman, HDFC with Union Minister Piyush Goyal

India’s headline Consumer Price Index (CPI) Inflation is expected to come off from December, said Deepak Parekh, former chairman of HDFC.

“Expectations are there that inflation rates will start coming off from December onwards,” Parekh said during address at CNBC TV18 Global Leadership Summit.

Similar words has been reiterated by the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das that even though there were few humps, inflation is expected to moderate.

This was despite the inflation remained higher then medium term target of the RBI and breached upper tolerance band of 6 percent in October.

India’s retail inflation rose to a 14-month high of 6.2 percent in October from 5.5 percent in the previous month, as food inflation galloped on the back of rising vegetable prices.

The October reading was above the Moneycontrol poll median of 5.9 percent from 15 forecasts, and breached the RBI’s upper band target of 6 percent for the first time in more than a year, raising fears that the central bank may hold rates for the eleventh consecutive time at its meeting in December.

Parekh also said that India's corporate debt market is still shallow.

He added that there is a need for increased funding access for mid-level companies as well as large ones.