Addressing the twin problems of high inflation and low economic growth in Parliament, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and finance minister P Chidambaram reassured the country on Wednesday that improvement would be visible in both fronts over a period of time.
The PM urged parliamentarians not to dampen the “spirit of our people”. He said, “Although we are in difficulties, we are confident that in two-three years’ time, we will return the economy back to the robust growth path of 7 to 8%.”
Replying to a question from BJP’s Shahnawaz Hussain, Singh admitted that apart from international factors such as the banking crisis and the Eurozone crisis, certain domestic factors had affected the growth prospects.
Even as CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta accused the government of building castle in the air, Chidambaram listed the measures steps taken by the government and said, “We are taking a number of steps to contain food inflation and you will see the results over a period of time.”
The minister emphasised on improving the supply and making effective distribution channels to tackle high food prices: “Pulses inflation is high because there is a supply demand gap in pulses. Cereal inflation is high because we have given high MSP and we are pumping cereals into the market.”