Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday asked State Governments to remove all bottlenecks in the supply chain to bring down the rising food prices.

In a press release, Mr Mukherjee attributed price rise to the widening gap between wholesale and retail prices. He asked the State governments to check the local factors which result in widening this gap.

The Minister’s reaction comes after the inflation touched a high of 18.23 percent for the week ended December 25. He said that increase in inflation is mainly due to rising prices of primary items like fruits, vegetables and milk.