Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi pledged more schemes to cut down heightening food prices just as retail expansion in July hit a 15-month high. His words show that cost of living will be a prominent campaign problem in highlights in elections taking place next year. “We have to seriously proceed to bring down the burden of expansion of prices to the people of the country,” said Mr Modi in an independence day, from the ramparts of the 17th-century Red Fort in New Delhi. “And we will surely take important measures.
Our attempts will go on” Mr Modi did not reveal the steps that he will enforce in his speech on Tuesday. The 72-year-old leader is willing to regain power for the third consecutive term in the general elections due by May 2024. But heightening prices along with unemployment are showing up as important issues for his Bharatiya Janata Party. Food-driven inflation is always a problem for political groups in power in India.
They have in the last lost elections because they could cut down the price of important things like onions – an extremely important part of diets in the world’s most populated country. On Monday, government information revealed the consumer price index increased to a 15-month high of 7.44 per cent from a previous year. Food prices, which are about half of the inflation basket, increased 11.51 per cent, whilst fuel and electricity got 3.67 per cent.