It had remained at the single digit region for the 74th consecutive week, surpassing the previous record of 1,993 when it stayed at single digit for 52 weeks in a row.
For the seventh week in succession, the inflation rate had been hovering above the five per cent mark since July 13, when it broke the five per cent barrier to touch 5.17 per cent after remaining below the five per cent region for the 23 continuous weeks.
This jump in the inflation rate was primarily due to a rise in petroleum prices.
It had been swinging between the lowest of 4.14 (May 25) and the highest of 5.71 per cent during the 34-week period. During the eight-week period, (July 6 to August 24), it gained 1.31 per cent.
The recent 0.18 per cent increase was attributed to the hike in prices of gram, fish, tanning materials, raw rubber, atta, maida, suji, bran, rapeseed oil, mustard seed oil, cotton hosiery, linseed oil, powerlooms and fountain pens.
But ayurvedic medicines, cotton seed, fodder, urad, mutton and coffee became cheaper during the week under review.
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The official wholesale price index for all commodities (base 1981-82) rose for the seventh week in succession to 313.1 during the week ended August 24. It was 312.7 in the previous week.
The 0.1 per cent increase in the index was due to jump in the indices of food products textiles, chemicals and chemical products, non-metallic mineral products, basic metals, alloys and metal products machinery and machine tools and other miscellaneous manufacturing industries.
Food products and other miscellaneous manufacturing industries witnessed the maximum rise of 1.4 per cent and 3.5 per cent in their indices, respectively, during the week ended under review.
The final wholesale price index for all commodities (base 1981-82) was 306.4 during the week ended June 29 as compared with the provisional index of 306.5.
The inflation rate based on final index worked out to 4.18 per cent as compared with 4.22 per cent based on the provisional index.
As atta became costlier by six per cent, maida and suji prices up by five per cent each, bran prices up by four per cent, rape seed oil, mustard seed oil prices up by three per cent, gur prices up by two per cent and oil cakes prices up by one per cent, the food products index under the manufactured products group went up by 1.4 per cent to 297.9. But coconut oil and groundnut oil prices dipped by one per cent each.
The textiles index rose by 0.6 per cent to 301.3 from 299.5 because cotton hosiery prices shot up by six per cent filament yarn synthetic prices up by two per cent.
Cotton yarn prices up by one per cent. The prices of jute manufactures, however, declined by one per cent.
Due to linseed oil becoming dearer by five per cent, reactive dyes prices up by two per cent and castor prices up by one per cent, the chemicals and chemical products index rose by 0.1 per cent to 257.7. But ayurvedic medicines became cheaper by three per cent.
The index for non-metallic mineral products went up by 0.2 per cent to 335.1 from 334.4 because sheet glass became dearer by three per cent and cement prices up by one per cent.
A sharp eight per cent jump in prices of fountain pens pushed up the index for other miscellaneous manufacturing industries steeply by 3.5 per cent to 176.1 from 170.1.
The index for non-food articles came down by 0.6 per cent to 333.9 from 335.8 because cotton seed and fodder prices fell by three per cent each, and raw cotton prices down by one per cent.