With the inflation curve's relentless ascent touching a new high of 8.1% on Friday, the Manmohan Singh government virtually threw in the towel, admitting that inflationary pressures were beyond control and that it could only hope food prices would moderate. Finance minister P Chidambaram handed out a grim forecast in his interaction with reporters when he said that it would be difficult to predict when price rise could be contained. His prognosis, while dulling the lustre of 9% growth, should be cause for concern for Congress as the opposition NDA has zeroed in on price rise in a big way. Congress's in-house diagnosis has pinpointed inflation as the chief reason for its loss in the Karnataka polls. The government had assured the Congress leadership that prices would start coming down by July, but Chidambaram's remarks have cast a doubt on this. "Prices of commodities produced in India are certainly moderating, but prices of anything that is globally traded and we import are not declining... All I can say is food prices may moderate, it is difficult to hazard whether non-food prices will moderate,' the minister said, in the clearest indication so far that government's interventions were yet to show results. The weekly figures show that inflation hit 7.82% a week ago and 5.3% during the corresponding week last year. 2007-08 GDP growth 9%, gives FM hope Abuoyant agriculture sector lifted the 2007-08 projection for GDP from 8.7% to 9% on Friday, reason enough for finance minister P Chidambaram to claim that the growth rate would not be less than 8.5% in 2008-09, and, with