India's food price inflation dips again to 9.50 per cent
31 Mar 2011
Food price inflation in the country remained unsteady with volatility in food prices and declined to 9.50 per cent during the week ended 19 March 2011, reversing a brief upward momentum when it hit 10.05 per cent during the previous week.
Food price inflation in the country stood at 20.18 per cent during the comparable week of the previous year.
The decline in inflation rate has been due to lower prices of egg, fish and mutton as also wheat, fruits and vegetables and condiments and spices during the week.
Food articles have a weight of 14.34 in the wholesale price index (WPI) of commodities while primary articles have a weight of 20.12, non-food articles a weight of 4.26 and fuel and power group a weight of 14.91.
Build-up of inflation for the `food articles' group so far during the current financial year (beginning 1 April 2010) was also lower at 8.70 per cent against 20.27 per cent in the similar period of the previous year.
The index for the 'food articles' group declined 0.5 per cent to 178.7 (provisional) from 179.6 (provisional) in the previous week due to lower prices of eggs (down 3 per cent), condiments and spices and fish (down 2 per cent each) and wheat, mutton, fruits and vegetables, arhar and tea (down 1 per cent each). However, the prices of ragi, urad and maize (up 2 per cent each) and bajra and poultry chicken (up 1 per cent each) moved up.