Inflation will fluctuate for three months: Basu

Inflation will continue to fluctuate over the next three months before it starts falling steadily, chief economic advisor with the finance ministry Kaushik Basu said on Friday.

"For the next three months, there will be fluctuating trend in inflation following which it would see a fall," Basu said.

He, however, said that the figures for June would go up due to the base effect. Inflation eased to 9.59 per cent in April from 9.9 per cent in March. To a query, he said that it was very unlikely that inflation would touch the double-digit mark.

On the appreciating rupee, Basu said that it was becoming a cause for concern for exporters. Basu said that some market-based action was required to correct the exchange rate and it was within RBI's domain.

"The exchange rate movements need to be watched," he said. I am also not in favour of any capital controls," Basu said.
On GDP growth, he said that the IMF forecast of 8.75 per cent was correct as against 8.5 per cent predicted by the finance ministry.