Food inflation may soon drop below 3 per cent: Kaushik Basu

With food inflation showing a continuous decline in the past few weeks, Chief Economic Advisor to the Finance Ministry, Kaushik Basu Wednesday said it could fall to below 3 per cent within a month.

"I do expect the food inflation to come down below 3 per cent within a month ," Basu said at the Delhi Economics Conclave organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in the capital.

Basu is also the head of a panel appointed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to suggest ways to bring down inflation.

Latest data showed food inflation falling to a 39-month low to 6.6 per cent for the week ended November 30.

Headline inflation also dipped marginally to 9.11 per cent in November, but still remains above the comfort level of the government, according to data released by the commerce ministry on Wednesday.

The decline in food inflation would give the much needed relief to common people and the policymakers who have been struggling for almost the last two years to control the general price rise.

Basu said policymakers now needed to give growth a boost, especially in the wake of the global economic uncertainty and domestic industrial output going into the negative.

"We need to pull out of the industrial slowdown as soon as possible," Basu said.