Expressing confidence, Food Minister K V Thomas said on Friday the government is not 'worried' about food inflation, which is showing a decline trend and may come down to 7 per cent soon."Food inflation now is 9.5 per cent, which we presume that it may come down to 7 per cent soon. So, we are not worried about inflation. We feel that we will be able to control that," the minister told reporters in New Delhi.
Speaking on the sidelines of a meeting with Jerome Bonnafont, Ambassador of France in India, he said India is confident of containing food inflation as the availability of foodgrains in the country is comfortable.
"We are trying to manage supply-demand gap in pulses and edible oil," he said.
On sugar, the minister said although India's production is estimated to be higher this year, but we are not taking 'hasty decision' on allowing exports as the government's priority is to protect the interest of consumers.
The country's food inflation has come down to 9.52 per cent for the week ended February 29, from 10.39 per cent in the previous week.
The
minister also said the situation of food inflation in the European countries is worse at present.
On waste of food in big social events, Thomas said the government is meeting next week to decide on a strategy to reduce 'extravaganza wastage' of food at big functions.
Thomas and Ambassador of France in India, Jerome Bonnafont met today to discuss about the group meetings on agriculture and food prices, which are part of the forthcoming G-20 meeting to be held in June in Paris.
"The group meeting on agriculture prices is in May. In continuation of this process, we discussed on inflation, food security bill and issues related to export and import of farm items," the minister said.
"I came to discuss different topics including agriculture, which are on agenda of the G-20 meeting, Bonnafont said.
"For France, India is an important partner for the preparation of the G-20 ministerial meeting on the prices of agricultural items, control of inflation, the increase of production, etc," he said.
