Inflation moves up to 5.26%

Fiscal 2005-06 began with inflation rising to 5.26% during the week ended April 2 due to costlier food, fuel and manufactured products. Inflation stood at over 4% in the year-ago period.

Inflation based on the wholesale price index (WPI) rose 0.21% from the previous week's level of 5.05% despite cheaper non-food items and edible oils.

The WPI increased by 0.4% to 190.2 points during the first week of April with all major indices of primary articles, fuels and manufactured products going up. It was at 180.7 points in the year-ago period.

The government revised downwards the inflation rate to 4.96% for the week ended February 5, 2005 when compared to the provisional level of 5.01%. The WPI stood corrected at 188.5 points during the first week of February as against the provisional estimate of 188.6 points.

The primary articles group index was up 0.4% to 186.5 points due to costlier food articles while non-food items became cheaper. The index was at 184 points a year ago.

The fuel, power, light and lubricants group index was up 0.1% to 289.9 points due to costlier aviation turbine fuel (an increase of 20%), naphtha (17%) and furnace oil (1%) even as bitumen became cheaper by 2%. The index was 263.3 points in the previous year period.