Food price inflation rises further to 17.56 per cent

The annual rate of inflation based on the wholesale price index of food articles (base: 1993-94=100) increased further to 17.56 per cent during the week ended 23 January from 17.40 per cent in the previous week.

Food price inflation stood at 10.37 per cent in the comparable week a year ago in the week ended 24 January 2009.

The build-up of food price inflation so far during the financial year beginning 1 April 2009 stood at 17.37 per cent compared with 6.79 per cent during the same period of the previous year.

The wholesale price index for the 'food articles' group declined 0.1 per cent to 286.5 (provisional) during the week from 286.7 (provisional) in the previous week due to lower prices of tea (-5 per cent), arhar (-3 per cent) and urad, fruits and vegetables, ragi and eggs (-1 per cent each). However, the prices of coffee (5 per cent), gram (2 per cent) and wheat, moong, barley and jowar (1 per cent each) moved up.

The wholesale price index for the primary articles group as a whole, however, declined 0.2 per cent to 284.9 (provisional) during the week ended 23 January from 285.5 (provisional) in the previous week.

The annual rate of inflation based on the index of primary articles stood at 14.56 per cent (provisional) during the week ended 23 January 2010 against 14.66 per cent (provisional) in the previous week and 8.89 per cent during the corresponding week of the previous year (ended 24 January 2009).