Food Inflation Will Ease in Next Fiscal: Pawar

Union Food and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar has said that food prices are expected to come down in the next fiscal on the back of higher farm output with the only government worrying then being on storage, reported PTI.

Nevertheless, the minister made it clear that the country would have to import pulses and edible oils for the next 10 years, said report.

As for the possibility of reduction in prices of food in the next financial year beginning April 1, Pawar told a TV news channel: “100 per cent. In 2011-12 the problem which the government of India will have to worry about (is) what to do and where to store.”

Due to high prices of vegetables and pulses, food inflation reached up to 17.40 per cent for the week that ended on January 16, said report.