Food price inflation rate climbs to 11.47 per cent

The annual rate of inflation based on the wholesale price index of food articles in the country increased further to 11.47 per cent (provisional) during the week ended 28 August 2010 from 10.86 per cent (provisional) in the previous week.
 
The increase in inflation rate was due mainly to higher prices of fruits and vegetables (up 2 per cent) and wheat (up 1 per cent).

Food price inflation stood at 15.14 per cent in the comparable week a year ago (week ended 29 August 2009).

Build-up of food price inflation so far during the financial year (beginning 1 April 2010) was 6.32 per cent (provisional) during the week ended 14 August 2010 against 12.49 per cent in the corresponding week of the previous year.

The index for the 'food articles' group declined 0.2 per cent to 297.9 (provisional) from 298.6 (provisional) in the previous week due to lower prices of fish (-11 per cent), moong, poultry chicken and gram (-2 per cent each) and maize, arhar, urad and rice (-1 per cent each). However, the prices of fruits and vegetables (2 per cent) and wheat (1 per cent) moved up.

Inflation rate based on the wholesale price index of non-food articles eased to 20.43 per cent (provisional) during the week ended 28 August 2010.

Inflation rate for the group stood at a negative (-) 2.55 per cent in the comparable week of the previous year.