Driven by higher prices of manufactured products and fuel, inflation based on the wholesale price index rose to 3.11% for the week ended November 3 as compared to 2.97% in the previous week.Although prices of food articles like fruits and vegetables, maize, chicken became cheaper during the week, whereas moong, fish and eggs became dearer.Manufactured products, which bear a weight of 63.75% in the WPI basket rose by 0.2%, due to higher prices of sunflower oil, imported edible oil, textile products, chemical products and machine tools.Prices in the fuel and power group also increased due to furnace oil, aviation turbine fuel, naphtha and bitumen becoming dearer. Prices of aviation turbine fuel flared up 5% while those of furnace oil shot up by 6%."It would be too premature to call it a beginning of an upward trend. I think this is a temporary deviation and does not require any policy response. I believe inflation will remain within the range of 3% to 3.25% in the coming weeks," said Abheek Barua, chief economist, HDFC Bank.Inflation stood at 5.45% during the corresponding week last year.The government also revised inflation for the week ended September 8 to 3.46% as compared to 3.32% reported earlier.
