New Delhi, August 09: Concerned over rising prices, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has said more fiscal and monetary steps could be taken to ease inflation, if required.
“The Reserve Bank is constantly watching monetary expansion. To improve the supply position, import doors are kept open and as and when some steps are called for, we will be in a position to take them,” he said in an interview to private news channel CNBC TV18.
The government has taken a host of fiscal measures to maintain adequate supply including ban on export of non-basmati rice, wheat and sugar. At the same time, imports of deficient food items like pulses and edible oil have been allowed duty free.
In order to control high inflation, RBI in its monetary review on July 27 raised short-term borrowing (reverse repo) rate by 50 basis points and lending (repo) rate by 25 basis points.
–Agencies