Food inflation will come down to single digit: Mukherjee

New Delhi, Feb 17 (PTI) Indian Finance Minister Pranab
Mukherjee on Thursday expressed optimism of food inflation
coming down to single digit as the rate of price rise of
essential kitchen items moderated significantly in the first
week of February.
"...in quite some time food inflation will also be under
single digit," Mukherjee told reporters here.
Driven by high vegetable prices, the food inflation is in
double digit for the past two months and even crossed 18 per
cent in the last week of December 25.
"Now it is going down and I think WPI (wholesale price
index) has also come down by 2 percentage point. So it is good
sign...," Mukherjee added.
The food inflation for the week ended February 5 touched
a nine week low at 11.05 per cent from 13.07 per cent in the
previous week.
However, Mukherjee cautioned that weekly and monthly
fluctuations in inflation numbers "are always deceptive".
He, further said that despite seasonal fluctuations in
inflation figures, the overall inflation ending March 2011
would be in the range of 7 per cent.
"I hope as I mentioned earlier, by March we able to reach
overall inflation of 7 per cent," he said.
The headline inflation measured on WPI has also moderated
to 8.23 per cent in January from 8.43 per cent in the previous
month.