-The Economic Times India's consumer prices climbed 10.56 per cent in December from a year earlier. This will hold the RBI's rate-cutting hand and prove politically painful for the government. The increase in the Consumer Price Index (CPI), over three percentage points more than the increase in the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) number, is due to a spurt in prices in the food and beverage category - mainly vegetables, oils and fat,...

-The Financial Express Mumbai: On Tuesday, the RBI said the path of inflation will be shaped by two sets of counteracting forces. On the downside, slower growth and excess capacity in some sectors will help moderate core inflation. “Stable, or in the best case scenario, declining commodity prices will reinforce this tendency. An appreciating rupee will also help to contain inflationary pressures by bringing down the rupee cost of imports, especially of...

-The Indian Express The government’s proposal to price-control certain drugs will create more problems than it will solve From clothes to cars, prices of consumer products the world over are determined taking into account input costs, margins and competition, popularly called the cost-based pricing system. Departing from this sound, fair, tried and tested principle of commerce, the government’s new drug pricing policy, approved by the Group of Ministers headed by Sharad Pawar,...

-The Telegraph Costlier food items carried inflation up to 7.55 per cent in May, and the price situation could get aggravated further by the government’s decision to raise the minimum support price of paddy, oil seeds and pulses. However, the Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs (CCEA) deferred a decision to raise urea prices because of opposition by some ministries. Inflation in May last year stood at 9.56 per cent. Overall food inflation rose to...

-The Times of India Spiralling prices of vegetables, oils and fats, milk and milk products pushed consumer price inflation to double digits in April in yet another hurdle to the Reserve Bank of India's efforts to ease interest rates. The double digit retail inflation rate also poses fresh challenges for the UPA government which has been on the back foot for its handling of the economy. Data released by the Central Statistics Office...