Food inflation may dip to 7% soon, govt not worried

Expressing confidence, Food Minister K V Thomas today said the government is not "worried" about food inflation, which is showing a decline trend and may come down to 7% soon.

"Food inflation now is 9.5%, which we presume that it may come down to 7% soon. So, we are not worried about inflation. We feel that we will be able to control that," the minister told reporters here.

Speaking on the sidelines of a meeting with Jerome Bonnafont, Ambassador of France in India, he said India is confident of containing food inflation as the availability of foodgrains in the country is comfortable. "We are trying to manage supply-demand gap in pulses and edible oil," he said.

On sugar, the minister said although India's production is estimated to be higher this year, but we are not taking "hasty decision" on allowing exports as the government's priority is to protect the interest of consumers.

The country's food inflation has come down to 9.52% for the week ended February 29, from 10.39% in the previous week.

The minister also said the situation of food inflation in the European countries is worse at present.

On wastage of food in big social events, Thomas said the government is meeting next week to decide on a strategy to reduce "extravaganza wastage" of food at big functions.

Thomas and  Ambassador of France in India, Jerome Bonnafont met today to discuss about the group meetings on agriculture and food prices, which are part of the forthcoming G-20 meeting to be held in June in Paris.

"The group meeting on agriculture prices is in May. In continuation of this process, we discussed on inflation, food security bill and issues related to export and import of farm items," the minister said.

Bonnafont said, "I came to discuss different topics including agriculture, which are on agenda of the G-20 meeting.

"For France, India is an important partner for the preparation of the G-20 ministerial meeting on the prices of agricultural items, control of inflation, the increase of production, etc," he said.