After weeks of decline, the annual rate of inflation rose to 1.39 per cent for the week ended February 16, against 8.49 per cent in the corresponding period last year.
The increase was triggered mainly by the rise in the prices of primary items like eggs, meat, condiments and spices.
The latest reported week saw a 0.26 per cent increase in point-to-point price change in commodity prices as measured by the wholesale price index (WPI) from 1.13 per cent a week ago.
This is despite a fall in the prices of vegetables and woollen textiles.
The WPI rose marginally by 0.1 per cent to 160.7 for the second week of February against 160.5 in the previous week. The final WPI stood marginally lower at 161.7 in the week ended December 22, 2001, against the provisional figure of 161.9.
The final inflation was lower by 0.13 per cent at 2.08 per cent in the third week of December, against the provisional figure of 2.21 per cent.
The All-India Consumer Price Index for industrial workers (CPI-IW) stood at 467 points in January this year, while the point-to-point change based on the CPI-IW dipped by 0.22 per cent to 4.94 per cent for the same month against 5.16 per cent in December 2001.
Primary articles became dearer by nearly 1 per cent and manufactured products became cheaper by a marginal 0.1 per cent. Fuel items continued to remain stationary for the third consecutive week.
The index for primary articles rose to 167.1 from 165.8, this is despite a marginal fall in the price of minerals. The index was at 160.8 last year.
The food articles' group index rose by 0.8 per cent to 175.5 from 174.1 as prices of fresh-water fish, maize, ragi, bajra, moong, condiments and spices (1 per cent each) rose.
The index for the non-food articles' group rose by 0.7 per cent to 149.6 from 148.5 because of costly groundnut seed, raw jute and raw cotton, and mesta.
The minerals' group index fell marginally by 0.1 per cent to 121.8 from 121.9 because of cheaper barytes and vermiculite.
The index for the fuel, power, light and lubricants' group stood unchanged at 227.3, the figure four weeks ago. The index was at 222.4 last year.
Continuing its fall for the third successive week, the index for the manufactured products' group went down to 143.7 from 143.8 as prices for food products, textiles, paper and chemical products fell. The index was at 143.4 last year.
