Food deflation to end in a few weeks: Kaushik Basu

KOLKATA: The recent deflation in food prices is expected to continue for the next few weeks, following which a scenario of low inflation in food prices will be witnessed from February, Chief Economic Advisor Kaushik Basu said today.

"The deflation in food prices could continue for a couple of weeks and in February, we will see low inflation," Basu said on the sidelines of the Amlan Dutta Memorial Lecture here.

Speaking about growth projections in the current fiscal, Basu said he was expecting GDP growth between 7 per cent and 7.5 per cent. The Q4 period (December-March) would be better and industrial production was also expected to witness growth, he said.

In his lecture, Basu said the two leading policies of the government, the rural employment guarantee scheme and financial inclusion programme, could have some inflationary implications.

"It can be termed as side effects of good polices," he said, adding that these policies were made to reach out to the poor.