Food inflation softened marginally to 18.65 per cent for the week ended December 12 though inflation rates for cereals and pulses, which constitute the essential consumption basket, continued to be in double digits.
The food inflation, based on wholesale prices, stood at 19.95 per cent in the previous week ended December 5.
Potato prices continued to rise with an inflation rate of 115 per cent on an annual basis, followed by pulses whose prices soared by 41.61 per cent. Vegetables as a whole turned expensive by 37.97 per cent, while the inflation rate for cereals stood at 11.02 per cent during the week.
Primary articles registered an inflation rate of 14.66 per cent in the week under consideration. The price index for food articles declined by 1.2 per cent during the week mainly on account of a decline in the prices of fruit and vegetables (2 per cent), wheat (5 per cent), bajra (4 per cent) and spices and tea (1 per cent each).
Cost push cited as reason
Meanwhile, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today said cost push was the key reason behind the soaring food inflation, and ample liquidity was not responsible for it.
“I am deeply concerned about the food inflation. There is a cost push element in this price rise. For example, between 2004 and 2009, the procurement price of wheat increased by Rs 450 per quintal. When you are procuring one quintal of wheat at Rs 1,100... and add all other costs, you calculate the cost escalation,” Mukherjee said in Kolkata.