Govt broke the back of high inflation: Goyal

Finance Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday said the government has been able to contain double-digit inflation and has restrained the "back-breaking" inflation to an average 4.6 per cent.

Presenting the Interim Budget 2019-20, Goyal said during the previous UPA government (2009-14), inflation averaged as high as 10.1 per cent.

"This was primarily because food inflation increased (during 2009-14). In contrast to that, our government broke the back-breaking inflation. We have brought down average inflation to 4.6 per cent, which is lower than the inflation during the tenure of any other government," Goyal said in his Budget speech in Parliament.

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He also said that the inflation came down to as low as 2.19 per cent in December 2018.

"If we would not have controlled inflation, our families would have spent 35-40 per cent more today on basic necessities such as food, travel, consumer durable and housing," he said.

Stating that the government had "undertaken path-breaking structural reforms by introducing GST and other reforms", he said that the NDA government has been able to rein in inflation.

Goyal said, India has been recognised as brightest spot in the world in last five years.