Food price inflation rises to 15.58 per cent

The annual rate of inflation based on the wholesale price index of food articles (base: 1993-94=100) rose to 15.58 per cent for the week ended 14 November 2009 from against 14.6 per cent in the previous week.

The inflation rate for food articles stood at 11.33 per cent during the year-ago week.

For the `primary articles' group as a whole, comprising food and non-food articles, the inflation rate stood at 11.04 per cent (provisional) for the week under review against 9.94 per cent (provisional) for the previous week (ended 7 November 2009).

Inflation rate for the primary articles group stood at 12.66 per cent during the corresponding week of the previous year (ended 15 November 2008).

For the week under review, the index for the primary articles group (Base: 1993-94=100) rose 1.2 per cent to 279.7 (provisional) from 276.4 (provisional) for the previous week.

Among the primary articles group, the index for the 'food articles' group rose 1.6 per cent to 286.3 (provisional) from 281.8 (provisional) for the previous week due to higher prices of urad and poultry chicken (15 per cent each), eggs (8 per cent), moong (6 per cent), arhar (5 per cent), fruits and vegetables (3 per cent) and milk and wheat (1 per cent each). However, the prices of barley (-2 per cent) declined.