August inflation to be high, will start easing in September: RBI governor Shaktikanta Das

INDORE: RBI governor Shaktikanta Das on Friday said inflation will start dropping from September. “We expect overall inflation to go down from September. August inflation will again be very high,” said Das, while addressing students at Indore‘s Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya.
The drop in tomato prices, and measures by the government like a reduction in domestic LPG rates and restrictions on exports of rice will help moderate inflation, Das said, adding that the 200% jump in tomato prices had impacted all vegetable segments and pushed up inflation. “The latest inflation numbers, released for July, came very high at 7.4%. We were expecting inflation to be substantially high because of (high) vegetable prices due to unseasonal rains,” he said.
Das said ‘TOP’ (tomato, onion and potato) vegetables “misbehave from time to time”, and this time it was the tomatoes. In consumer price index basket, food inflation represents 46% of the overall headline inflation. Das said that India’s growth and economic momentum looks steady, pointing out that the country recorded 7.2% growth last year and in the first quarter of this year, GDP stood at 7.8%, one of the highest.