New Delhi : Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar said on Wednesday the government need not respond to daily or weekly changes in the oil prices as they declined in July after showing northward movement a month ago.
Crude oil has gained $7 a barrel in a fortnight, driven by fears that the US sanctions on Iran will likely contract supplies.
“Weekly, daily or periodic changes in global oil and commodity prices are to be observed but don’t necessarily have to be responded.
“The prices rose in June but then declined in July. Is not it? Same situation may happen again, therefore policy cannot be a knee-jerk reaction to periodic events in the markets,” Kumar said.
Petrol and diesel prices in the country have been rising owing to a sharp rise in global crude oil rates.
Replying to a question on the reasons for economic slowdown in 2016-17, he said it was not exclusively on account of demonetisation, there were also other factors responsible for it.
“Simple point, I am making is that the slowdown in economic activity during 2016-17 was not a result exclusively of demonetisation, but also a result of the declining trend in the economic activities which started from the last quarter of 2015-16,” he said. Almost half of the fuel price is made up of taxes.