As per former chief economic advisor and now World Bank chief economist Kaushik Basu, a 5-6 percent inflation is not 'too high' for India economy and if it would be maintained at that level then it would be 'worth it'. Basu said, in current time Indian economy is growing and the inflation of 5-6% is not high for the growing economy. He added that when you are growing rapidly, you have to live with some inflation. Citing examples of developed country, Basu said during periods of very high growth, like we saw in South Korea in 1970, the inflation rate was high.
Further expressing his views on inflation, Basu said the recent moves by the government to implement the direct cash transfer scheme might create inflationary pressure on the economy. Since the scheme will give more money to the poor people through their bank account as a subsidy, so there is the risk of higher inflation as more money will be pumped into the system.
By adding further he said, the DTC scheme should be indexed to adjust with the inflation, so that the poor will not get affected with the rise in inflation and will continue to have the same buying power in future.
However, in an anti-inflationary stance RBI kept its policy interest rates unchanged on December 18 meeting, and ignored the growing demands from India. Inflation rate, as measured by the Wholesale Price Index, dropped to a ten-month low of 7.24 percent during November from 7.45 percent a month ago and 9.46 percent in the corresponding month a year ago.
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