Inflation rises to 5.25% despite cheaper food

The wholesale price index (WPI)-based inflation rose marginally to 5.25 per cent in the week ended November 29, which saw a sharp 9 per cent fall in vegetable and lower edible oil prices.

Inflation was at 5.24 per cent in the previous week and 3.4 per cent in the corresponding week a year ago.

Inflation in the week ended October 4, based on the final index, was 5.32 per cent compared with the 5.08 per cent reported on the basis of the provisional index.

A 1.3 per cent fall in prices of food items and a 0.3 per cent drop in non-food article prices pulled down the index for primary articles, while the indices for fuels and manufactured products remained unchanged compared with the previous weeks' levels.

The index for food articles fell on account of a 10 per cent fall in marine fish prices, 9 per cent drop in vegetable prices and a 4 per cent dip in barley prices.

The index for non-food articles fell due to a 6 per cent fall in prices of raw silk and 3 per cent fall in prices of gingelly seed and raw skins.

Soyabean and raw rubber prices fell by 2 per cent each. Sunflower was costlier by a steep 11 per cent during the week.

The manufactured products index was unchanged despite falling food products prices, textiles and machinery.

Within this major group the index for food products fell by 0.5 per cent owing to a 4 per cent drop in prices of khandsari and rice bran oil and 3 per cent fall in prices of oil cakes.

Prices of solvent extracted groundnut oil, salt and coconut oil fell by 2 per cent each while those of imported edible oil, rape seed oil, mustard oil and groundnut oil fell by 1per cent each.

The textiles group index was down by 0.4 per cent due to a 7 per cent fall in prices for woollen yarn, 4 per cent for tyre cord fabric and 3 per cent for cotton yarn-cones.

The index for machinery and machine tools' group fell by 0.3 per cent due to an 18 per cent decline in the price of excavators.