PMEAC Chairman Rangarajan says inflation may ease to 6.5 pc in Dec

Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council (PMEAC) Chairman C Rangarajan has said a fall in vegetable prices is likely to ease headline inflation to 6.5 per cent and retail inflation to 9.20 per cent in December.

Wholesale price-based inflation (WPI) accelerated to 14-month high of 7.52 per cent in November while retail inflation quickened to eight-month high of 11.24 per cent during the month.

"Some of the things that have really pushed up inflation are vegetables like onion prices, which have crashed in December. Therefore when December number comes in mid January, we will see retail inflation coming down by 2-2.5 percentage from the current level of 11 per cent or so. There could be a decline in wholesale price index ... could be the order of 1 percentage," Rangarajan said on the sidelines of an event on Sunday.

Going forward, Rangarajan said, the declining trend in inflation will continue and WPI may ease to 6.5 per cent by March-end.

"The RBI has estimated WPI to be around 6.5 per cent by March end. That is the number we are looking at. We will see a decline in December and perhaps it will continue," he said.

Quoting an econometric study, the former RBI governor said "the threshold inflation level is around 6 per cent, but there is a need to look at the slightly lower as the level is much higher than what many other countries in the world... advanced countries treat as the acceptable level of inflation."

Rangarajan said the delay in the completion of the projects had resulted in slow economic growth of India in the last few years.

"Economic growth has in fact declined much more steeply than what is warranted by the decline in investment. This may be because projects have not be completed in time or complementary investments have not been forthcoming," he said.