'Inflation to decline from Dec'

Headline inflation hovered near the double-digit mark, at 9.73 per cent, in October. It was 9.72 per cent in September.

Addressing a symposium on ‘Global Uncertainty and its Impact on India’s Exports’, he said India is not a high inflationary economy compared to countries like Germany and Hungary. “Both these countries have huge inflation and we are nowhere near it,” he said .

“My expectation is December inflation, data for which we will get in January, will be lower. The RBI and Finance Ministry expect inflation to be seven per cent in March,” he said.

Holding that inflationary trends of 9-10 per cent have been difficult and hard on people, Basu said it had remained close to 10 per cent for four months last year but has fortunately gone down. However, India has witnessed longer periods of double digit inflation, even at around 20 per cent for over 20 months in the 70s and 90s, Basu noted.