Inflation based on the wholesale price index (WPI) rose marginally to 4.32% during the week ended November 19 from 4.2% in the previous week.Decline in prices of essential items like vegetables, edible oil and tea along with cement and industrial fuels like naphtha and furnace oil failed to arrest the rise in inflation.Prices of other food items like eggs, poultry chicken, soyabean, beer and alcohol firmed up due to higher demand for these products in the winter. Some manufactured products like textile, chemicals and machinery witnessed surge in prices.Though inflation inched up slightly to 4.32%, it was still lower than 7.23% recorded a year ago.The WPI declined 0.3% to 198.1 points from 198.6 a week ago, but was higher than 189.9 points from the year-ago period.The government revised upwards the inflation figure to 4.34% for the week ended September 24 from the provisional level of 3.97% while the WPI stood corrected at 197.2 points as against the earlier estimate of 196.5 points.
