People Angry As Modi Govt Failed To Control Rising Prices: Congress

FILE PHOTO: A worker sorts onions at a wholesale vegetable market. Retail onion prices spiked to around Rs 80/ kg in Delhi

On Saturday, the Congress said that the Modi government has failed to control rising prices and asserted that the anger of the people who are fed up of inflation will be clearly seen in the results of the upcoming elections.

On the rising prices of onion and garlic, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh cited a media report. Ramesh, in a post of X in Hindi, said that inflation is continuously increasing and it has become difficult for poor people and the average person to sustain themselves amid this.

Ramesh said that the Narendra Modi government came to power with the promise of reducing inflation. However, it has completely failed to control it in the last nine-and-a-half years. Ramesh said, “To hide its (government’s) failure, it is trying to divert people’s attention.” However, he added that people are seeing and understanding everything.

He added, “The anger of the people troubled by inflation will be clearly visible in the results of the upcoming election.”

Elections are due to take place in five states in the coming weeks and the results will be declared on December 3. The states headed to the hustings are Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram.

The Congress has been raising concerns over rising unemployment and price rise and attacking the government over its handling of the economy.

The challenges in developing economy are many, especially when in context of the monetary policy with the Central Bank, the inflation and price stability phenomenon. There has been a universal argument these days when monetary policy is determined to be a key element in depicting and controlling inflation.

The Central Bank works on the objective to control and have a stable price for commodities. A good environment of price stability happens to create saving mobilisation and a sustained economic growth. The former Governor of RBI C. Rangarajan points out that there is a long-term trade-off between output and inflation. He adds on that short-term trade-off happens to only introduce uncertainty about the price level in future. There is an agreement that the central banks have aimed to introduce the target of price stability while an argument supports it for what that means in practice.

Optimal inflation rate

It arises as the basic theme in deciding an adequate monetary policy. There are two debatable proportions for an effective inflation, whether it should be in the range of 1–3 per cent as the inflation rate that persists in the industrialized economy or should it be in the range of 6–7 per cent. While deciding on the elaborate inflation rate, certain problems occur regarding its measurement. The measurement bias has often calculated an inflation rate that is comparatively more than actual. Secondly, there often arises a problem when the quality improvements in the product are in need to be captured out, hence it affects the price index. The consumer preference for cheaper goods affects the consumption basket at costs, for the increased expenditure on the cheaper goods takes time for the increased weight and measuring inflation. The Boskin Commission has measured 1.1 per cent of the increased inflation in USA every annum. The commission points out for the developed countries comprehensive study on inflation to be fairly low.

Money Supply And Inflation

The Good Quantitative Easing by the central banks with the effect of an increased money supply in an economy often helps to increase or moderate inflationary targets. There is a puzzle formation between low-rate inflation and a high growth of money supply. When the current rate of inflation is low, a high worth of money supply warrants the tightening of liquidity and an increased interest rate for a moderate aggregate demand and the avoidance of any potential problems. Further, in case of a low output, a tightened monetary policy would affect the production in a much more severe manner. The supply shocks are known to play a dominant role in monetary policy.