Inflation rises to 4.67%

The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government's commitment to keep price rise under check notwithstanding, inflation rose by 0.47 per cent to 4.67 per cent for the week ended May 15, due to surging prices of mass consumption items like vegetables, milk and edible oils.

The point-to-point wholesale price index (WPI) inflation rose from 4.20 per cent in the previous week even as prices of fuels remained unchanged despite gyrations in global markets.

The UPA, in its common minimum programme released yesterday, stressed that it would take "effective and strong measures" to control the price hike of essential items.

The WPI rose by 0.2 per cent to 181.5 points due to a sharp rise in the prices of primary articles and a marginal increase in the prices of heavy-weighted manufactured products.

The government revised upwards inflation to 4.53 per cent for the week ended March 20 as against the provisional figure of 4.3 per cent.

The final WPI stood corrected at 179.9 points during the third week of March as against the provisional level of 179.5 points.

The Index of Primary Articles' group shot up 0.6 per cent to 184.9 points due to the increasing prices of food, non-food and minerals.

Food articles' group index was up by 0.7 per cent to 183.9 points due to costlier fish-marine (eight per cent), vegetables (four per cent), mutton and jowar (two per cent each) and maize, milk, grams, eggs and ragi (one per cent each).

However, prices declined in the case of barley and tea (three per cent), condiments and spices (two per cent) and bajra, poultry chicken, masur and wheat (one per cent each).

The index of non-food articles' group moved up by 0.3 per cent to 190.4 points due to higher prices for soyabean (four per cent), niger seed and rape and mustard seed (three per cent each) and copra (two per cent) .

But prices came down for fodder (18 per cent), raw rubber (two per cent) and raw silk and gingelly seed (one per cent each).

Minerals' group index surged by over one per cent to 148.3 points due to costlier steatite (32 per cent), barytes (24 per cent), vermiculite (22 per cent), chromite (12 per cent) and gypsum (10 per cent), even as there was six per cent fall in the price of fluorite.

The index of fuel, power, light and lubricants' group was firm for the second consecutive week at 264.2 points and it was 246.4 points in the previous year period.

Market analysts told pti that oil psus were rather cautious to increase the prices since any hike could have "adverse externalities" owing to its backward and forward linkages in the economy.