The center has convened a meeting of state finance ministers on January 19 to discuss ways to rein in the rising food prices. Informing this to reporters in New Delhi today, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today termed the food inflation as unacceptably high. He said the government is trying its best to control it along with the cooperation of state governments. The Finance Minister said he would have pre-budget interactions with state counterparts on Wednesday, where the issue of inflation would also be discussed. The Finance Minister said inflation is an economic phenomenon which may have monetary factors behind it. He said it could be caused by mismatch between demand and supply or international scenario such as crude prices. Mukherjee said in the event of wide fluctuation in global petroleum prices, no amount of domestic policy measures could drastically bring it down. The finance minister said he had also written letters to states asking them to remove supply bottlenecks in food products. Mukherjee said the monthly wholesale prices have been declining since August, even as weekly food inflation numbers continued to be volatile.