Inflationary pressures to continue: Pranab

The country will continue to face inflationary pressures due to the high global commodity and oil prices, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today said.

"We are told that there could be pressure on commodity prices because of shortage in production of certain essential food items," Mukherjee told reporters on the sidelines of the 63rd annual general body meeting of Indian Banks Association here.

"When there is uncertainty in the global markets, particularly on those products for which we have to depend through imports, naturally it would affect," he added.

He further said, "Inflationary pressures have no predictability or a certain direction. Like in 2008 when oil and commodity prices shot up and then declined drastically, commodity prices remain unpredictable today. It is too unpredictable, nobody can comment on how these will behave".

However, he added quickly that his government along with the Reserve Bank are tyring to achieve higher growth and bring down inflation to acceptable level.

"By constantly adjusting the policy, both from the supply side and the demand side and by taking appropriate fiscal policies in tandem with the RBI, we are trying to achieve high growth and acceptable levels of inflation," Mukherjee said.

Headline inflation came a tad down to 8.66% in April from 8.98% in the previous month, while the weekly food price index dipped to an 18-month low of 7.47% for  the week ended  May 7 from the previous week when it stood at 7.70%.