Will Budget contain inflation damage?
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Rising inflationary concerns are slowly turning into an unavoidable nightmare for the UPA government which over the past few months has taken all possible measures to improve the situation. The recent spike in onion, tomato, garlic and many other commodities have just added to the government worries and for consumers they have hit them like a ton of bricks.
Led by a smart recovery in farm output, the government estimates economic growth for the current financial year at 8.6 per cent, as against 8 per cent a year ago. However, the economy faces headwinds in form of stubbornly high inflation rate, which analysts see a serious threat to the country's growth momentum. To check demand-side pressure, the Reserve Bank of India has raised its key policy rates seven times in the past one year. Now, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee will be watched keenly in his budget presentation to see how he plans to contain inflation and the fiscal deficit while keeping up the pace of growth. (Photo: Associated Press)
