Economics is not about tomorrow or the day after: Sibal

Staff Reporter | 08 May, 2008
Minister of Science and Technology Kapil Sibal Wednesday said the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government will bring down prices in six weeks.

"Economics is not about tomorrow or the day after. A set of complex factors is responsible for price rise, but the government is confident of bringing down prices in six weeks," Sibal told reporters.

Like Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who last month urged the opposition and the Left parties not to extract political mileage from price rise, Sibal said: "The opposition parties are creating an atmosphere of scarcity."

"Rather than making such a hue and cry on inflation, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) first needs to look at the inflation rates prevalent at the time when it was in power," said Sibal.

He maintained that inflation in 13 states in India has been contained between three to six percent.

The minister held out a string of facts and figures to drive home his argument. Global inflation, Sibal said, is leading to price rise across the world.

In India, the minister said, inflation stands at seven percent while in China it is nine percent.

"Prices of products which India imports in large quantities have gone up," said Sibal. The minister held out the example of the price of soyabean oil, which has gone up by 62 percent.