Govt Taking Steps To Tackle Inflation, Minimise Burden On People, Says PM Modi

The PM's assertion comes a day after data released by the MoSPI on Monday showed that India's retail inflation in July jumped to 7.44 per cent from 4.87 per cent in June.

From the ramparts of Red Fort, Prime Minister Narendra Modi acknowledged rising inflation and said that the government will be taking measures to tackle inflation so as to minimise the burden of price rise on people. In his address to the nation on the 77th Independence Day, Modi said the world is grappling with high inflation, and when India imports goods, it also imports inflation.

"The world is yet to fully recover from the impact of Covid pandemic. The war has created yet another problem. The world is grappling with the problem of inflation. Inflation has gripped the global economy," the prime minister said adding that when India imports goods from other countries, "unfortunately" it also imports inflation.

"But we cannot be satisfied (just) because our situation is better than the world. We have to take more steps to minimise the burden of price rise on our people. We will definitely take the steps. My efforts will continue," he further added.

The Prime Minister's assertion comes a day after data released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) on Monday showed that India's retail inflation in July jumped to 7.44 per cent from 4.87 per cent in June. This is considerably higher than June's figure of 4.87 per cent. In July last year, the CPI inflation was at 6.71 per cent. 

The surge in inflation is primarily because of food inflation, which came in at 11.51 per cent. In June, the inflation on the food basket was 4.55 per cent, while in July last year it was 6.69 per cent. The rural inflation in July stood at 7.63 per cent, while the urban inflation for the same month stands at 7.2 per cent. The retail inflation in vegetables year-on-year was 37.43 per cent while the rate of price rise in 'cereals and products' was 13 per cent, showed the data released by the NSO.

Rising prices of tomatoes and other food commodities have made headlines in the last few weeks. For the first time in the current fiscal, retail inflation breached the Reserve Bank of India's comfort level of 6 per cent.

The RBI is mandated to keep retail inflation in the range of 2 to 6 per cent, and after lingering above the top limit for most of the fiscal year 2022-23, inflation was in the central bank's comfort zone this fiscal year until June. Last week, when introducing the bi-monthly monetary policy, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das warned of a significant increase in headline inflation in the near term and revised up the inflation prediction for the second quarter to 6.2 per cent.