The average rate of inflation in the country during the first quarter of current fiscal has been lower than that in the corresponding period in each of the last three years, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said on Tuesday.
The average inflation for all commodities at 4.5 per cent in April-June this year was lower than 5.3 per cent in the same quarter in 2005-06, 5.4 per cent in 2004-05 and 6.2 per cent in Q1 of 2003-04, he said in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha.
"In the current year, there has been pressure on prices of some food grains and of petrol and diesel," he said. Increase in prices of food articles has largely been due to a shortfall in domestic supplies relative to demand and hardening of international prices.
"The government has already taken steps to arrest the price increase by augmenting supplies through imports at reduced duty rates, ban on export of pulses and sugar, regular monitoring of prices of essential commodities and regulatory measures for restricting speculative trading in futures market," he said.
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