The Indian government Monday said food inflation, which is on a decline, will be in an "acceptable" range of 5-6 per cent in due course, on a day when the entire Opposition called a national strike against fuel price rise.
"Food inflation is going down. It will take some time before it really comes into a range which is acceptable to the government and which is good for the people," Finance Secretary Ashok Chawla told reporters on the sidelines of a conference on state highways here.
Food inflation declined by almost 4 percentage points to 12.92 per cent for the week ended June 19. Several analysts attributed the decline to the base effect, rather than any real decline in prices.
Wholesale price-based inflation, which includes variation in food prices, crossed double digits (10.16 per cent provisionally) in May, but as per final figures, the rate of price rise has been 11 per cent or more since February.
When asked what would be an acceptable range of food inflation, he said it would be 5-6 per cent.
The Finance Secretary's statement came on the day when the entire Opposition parties called a national strike in protest against the fuel price hike, which disrupted normal life in several parts of the country. Industry estimates said the economic loss ranged between Rs 3,000
and 10,000 crore.
While the government feels that the food inflation would come down, analysts said the overall inflation would increase in the coming days due to the steep hike in fuel prices.
The government had last month deregulated petrol prices, leading to a Rs 3.5 a litre hike, while diesel rates were raised by Rs 2 a litre, LPG by Rs 35 a cylinder and kerosene by Rs 3 a litre.
Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank yesterday said managing inflation will remain its main priority. "For RBI, inflation is everything... for the (finance) ministry, it is growth.
But in the long run, both will onverge...inflation is the biggest enemy,"
Reserve Bank of India deputy governor KC Chakrabarty had said.