High growth leading to price pressures: FM

NEW DELHI: India's high economic growth is leading to inflationary pressures, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in parliament on Wednesday.

Asia's third largest economy is seen expanding 8.5 percent in the year to end-March 2011. Wholesale price inflation in June stood at 10.55 percent and Chief Statistician of India T.C.A. Anant said last month that July headline inflation could be around 11 percent.

India's central bank raised interest rates more forcefully than expected last week, signalling its urgency to stamp on inflation.

Mukherjee was replying to a parliamentary debate on price rise, a political hot potato that has given the opposition a handy tool to attack the government with and block proceedings in the house since its opening last week.