Black marketing not main reason for price rise: Jaitley

TIL Desk/Business/New Delhi-Black marketing is not the only reason for food inflation in the country and other factors like demand-supply mismatch, price trend in global markets are also responsible, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said today.

“Black marketing is only one of the many reasons for inflation of food or essential commodities. Rise of prices of any essential commodity depends on various factors, such as demand and supply mismatch, trend of prices in international markets,” Jaitley said in Lok Sabha today.

He was replying to a question whether trading in commodity market and black marketing of food commodities have played a significant role in high food inflation in the country. Jaitley said commodity futures market is a platform for price discovery and hedging price risk. Citing various studies, he said future trading does not lead to any price rise, instead fiscal deficit, global food inflation and domestic wages were the primary reasons for food inflation in India.