Food inflation falls further to 6.60 per cent
08 Dec 2011
The annual rate of inflation based on wholesale food prices in India declined further to 6.60 per cent during the week ended 26 November 2011 from 8.00 per cent in the previous week helped by a fall in the prices of vegetables, milk and poultry products.
Food inflation stood at 8.93 per cent during the similar period in the previous year.
The declining trend in food prices, although mainly due to a lull in industrial activity, has given hope to policymakers that prices would reach more comfortable levels towards the year-end.
Build-up of food inflation so far during the financial year (beginning 1 April 2011) was 8.21 per cent against 10.58 per cent during the similar period of the previous year.
The index for the 'food articles' group declined 1.0 per cent to 193.8 (provisional) during the week ended 26 November 2011 from 195.7 (provisional) during the previous week due to lower prices of fish-fresh water and jowar (down 3 per cent each), fruits and vegetables, condiments and spices, masur and urad (down 2 per cent each) and fish-marine, poultry chicken, barley and moong (down 1 per cent each). However, the prices of ragi (up 3 per cent), pork (up 2 per cent) and gram, mutton, maize, egg and arhar (up 1 per cent each) moved up.
The rate of inflation for the non-food articles group stood at 1.37 per cent during the week ended 26 November 2011 from 2.14 per cent during the previous week. It was 27.31 per cent during the comparable week of the previous year.
Build-up of inflation for the group so far during the year (beginning 1 April 2011) was (-) 7.30 per cent against 16.40 per cent in the year-before week.
