Indian Food Inflation At Decade High

Indian food price inflation has soared to a decade high of 19.95 percent in the week to December 5. A Parliamentary panel investigation blames to Government, citing the "inability to import on the part of the public sector agencies is also suggestive of the abject failure of the Government's market intervention policies to meet demand-supply gaps in essential commodities".

The finance ministry are singled out for their "failure to make timely interventions and squarely address the burning issue (inflation) with due seriousness".

The Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, tried to reassure reporters that he was on the case and that he did, in reality, have a clue what he was doing.

"The government has taken a number of important measures to improve the domestic availability of essential commodities and to moderate their prices to help the common man from the pressure of inflation," he said.

I for one, and I suspect many others too, remain unconvinced. The government are said to be still "considering" whether to lower the minimum tender price for state-owned wheat from around USD300/tonne.

Figures on farmers' progress with winter wheat plantings are expected later today.