Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia today pitched for monthly release of inflation data, as it was more sensible than the current practice of coming out with weekly figures.
“We have been arguing for the past one year to get the rate of monthly inflation. You know weekly is just not sensible,” Ahluwalia told reporters here.
Nowhere in the world was there weekly release of inflation data, he added. Earlier, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had said information on weekly prices of manufactured products was highly meagre.
“In the absence of legal backing for a dedicated data collection system, the data is received on a voluntary basis from ministries and attached offices, commodity boards, oil companies, individual industrial units, leading manufacturers, business houses, chambers of commerce and trade associations,” Mukherjee had said.
Inflation rises to 0.92%
Inflation rose to 0.92 per cent as of October 3 from 0.70 per cent a week ago, even as prices of staple food items, including vegetables, fell by 13.19 per cent for the second straight week.
Prices of food articles, in all, declined by 1.7 per cent, but when seen on year-on-year basis they were up 13.34 per cent.