FM opposes credit curbs

On the sidelines of a conference in Bangalore, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday said that the government opposes tighter monetary policy to curb rising food prices, as this would hit economic growth. Inflationary pressures have been building in recent months, worsened by a poor monsoon pushing up food prices, and economists and the government expect wholesale price inflation to top the central bank's 5-percent forecast for the fiscal year ending March.