'Rising food prices will ease after July'

India's Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Monday said that food prices would ease after July and that he was not in favour of altering monetary policy. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) expects inflation to soften around mid-2010 on a normal monsoon and moderation in food prices and has forecast the March 2011 WPI inflation at 5.5 percent. The unexpectedly high inflation has heightened expectations the RBI would raise rates before its scheduled July review despite concerns over Europe's debt crisis.