Rising prices of food articles have pushed up the annual rate of inflation based on the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) beyond the 3 per cent mark to 3.01 per cent for the week ending November 6. It was 2.78 percent the previous week.
This is the first time in 21 weeks that the inflation rate has crossed the 3 per cent mark. It was 3 per cent for the week ending June 12 and 3.53 per cent for the week ending June 5. The inflation rate was 8.61 per cent during the corresponding week last year.
The lower rate of inflation during a large part of the current year is mainly due to comparison with a higher base last year when prices of most essential commodities had risen abnormally following a shortfall in agriculture production.
The inflation rate began rising following the hike in diesel prices in October. It is expected to rise further if domestic prices rise due to the rise in international oil prices.
At a disaggregate level, the index for primary articles rose by 0.3 per cent while the indices for fuel, power, light & lubricants and manufactured products, the third major group in WPI, remained unchanged at previous week's level.
Prices of food articles rose by 0.7 per cent aided by a sharp 8 per cent increase in fruit prices and a 2 per cent increase in the prices of egg. Prices of vegetable, however, fell by 4 per cent and that of non-food article by 0.4 per cent. In the last category, the prices of raw silk and cotton seeds fell by 2 per cent.
In the manufactured products category prices of basic metals, alloys and metal products rose by 0.7 per cent in the week ended October 30. The index for non-metallic mineral products fell 0.6 per cent and the food products index 0.3 per cent.
The final WPI for `all commodities' for the week ended September 11 was 366.5 as against 363.7 calculated provisionally. The final annual rate of inflation for the same week stood higher at 2.8 per cent in comparison to 2.0 per cent on the provisional index.
The inflation rate based on the consumer price index (CPI) for industrial workers dropped to 2.1 per cent in September this year from 3.1 per cent in August.
