Finance Minister: Vegetable prices likely to cool down next month

The government expects vegetable prices to start cooling off from next month with the advent of new crops in the market, but rising crude oil prices is a concern even though it is still within the tolerable zone of $ 90 a barrel, a finance ministry official said.

The official further said that reduction in excise duty is not on cards and the government is driving infrastructure investment, and private sector capital investment is yet to gather steam.

He further said that the Centre's capital expenditure which was 28 per cent of Budget estimates at the end of June quarter, will reach 50 per cent by September end. In the 2023-24 budget, the government had hiked capital investment outlay by 33 per cent to Rs 10 trillion in the current fiscal.

The official further said that a 6 per cent rainfall deficit is unlikely to impact kharif sowing as the agriculture sector is resilient.

The government has been taking steps to control inflation, including releasing wheat and rice stocks from reserves, putting restrictions on exports of rice, sugar, and allowing import of pulses and oilseeds.

The retail inflation touched a 15-month high of 7.44 per cent in July, a spike from 4.87 per cent in June.

However, wholesale price based inflation continued in the negative zone for the fourth straight month at (-)1.36 per cent in July.