April Inflation Seen At Less Than 8%: Kashik Basu

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><root available-locales="en_US," default-locale="en_US"><static-content language-id="en_US"><![CDATA[<p>India's headline inflation in April is expected to be at less than 8 per cent, said Kaushik Basu, chief economic adviser in the finance ministry, on Tuesday.<br><br>He also said that India's economy is likely to grow between 8.75 per cent and 9.25 per cent in the current fiscal year to end-March 2012. Asia's third-largest economy probably grew 8.6 percent in the 2010-11 fiscal year.<br><br>Inflation surged to nearly 9 per cent in March, far above forecasts, on higher fuel and manufacturing prices, adding pressure on the RBI to take bolder action despite raising interest rates eight times since March 2010.<br><br>The wholesale price index, India's main inflation gauge, rose 8.98 per cent from a year earlier, above the median forecast for an 8.36 per cent rise in a Reuters' poll and higher than the annual rise of 8.31 per cent in February, data last week showed.<br><br>(Reuters)</p>