Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee says that his main aim in the budget is long term solution to inflation which has hit the common man. In an exclusive interview to All India Radio he said that the demand and supply mismatch contributed largely to higher food inflation and he has attempted to address this problem in the budget. The Finance Minister asserted that there is the need to augment production and productivity in agriculture through various measures, besides strengthening the old ones. In a related development, the Prime Minister's economic advisory council said all steps will be taken to bring down inflation between 4 to 5 per cent. The chairman of the council Dr. C. Rangrajan said in New Delhi that the policy measures include rate hikes and intervention in grain markets. He said, both fiscal and monetary policies are required to contain inflationary pressure. Expressing concern over the high food inflation, he said it has come down to 11.49 per cent. Dr. Rangrajan expressed the hope that inflation will come down to 7 per cent by the end of next month. He disagreed with the proposition that high growth rate requires high inflation. He however said that he saw inflation a short term constraint to achieve 9 per cent growth.