Manmohan Singh meets top policy makers

New Delhi: Amid looming global financial slowdown, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today reviewed the economic situation of the country with top policy makers.

Among those who attended the meeting included by Reserve Bank Governor D Subbarao, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia and PMEAC Chairman C Rangarajan. It is believed that high inflation and decline in factory output were deliberated during the meeting. India is facing a high rate of inflation which rose to 9.72 per cent in the month of September. The government has been saying that high inflation is a major concern, and all possible efforts are being made to tame it. To curb inflation, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has adopted a tight monetary policy and raised its key rates over a dozen times since March 2010, but failed to bring it down. Today’s meeting assumed significance ahead of the RBI’s second quarter monetary policy review on October 25. RBI deputy governor K C Chakrabarty hinted at further raising interest rates at the quarterly policy meet. “If inflation goes up, interest rates will go up anywhere in the world…I have no other instrument available with me (to anchor inflationary expectations),” Dr Chakrabarty said yesterday. The industrial output dipped at 4.1 per cent in August 2011, compared to 4.5 per cent during the corresponding month last year.