FM Nirmala Sitharaman inaugurates conference of Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relation

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today said that bringing inflation down cannot be the sole responsibility of the Centre. She stressed states also play a critical role in management of prices. Inaugurating a conference of Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relation in New Delhi today, Ms Sithraman said, during covid pandemic, immediately after and till today, handling inflation has become only a subset of handling the economy. She said, looking at the context about inflation particularly since 2020, there are so many different factors.

Ms Sitharaman said, she respects Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his courage to get crude oil from Russia because they gave discount. She said, India’s entire import had two per cent of Russian component and it was ramped up to 12 to 13 per cent within a couple of months. The Minister said, there are sanctions but countries are finding their own way to get that Russian crude, gas.