The annual rate of inflation rose to 8.69 per cent (provisional) for the week ended September 26 against 8.55 per cent (provisional) for the previous week and 3.47 per cent during the corresponding week last year. This was mainly on account of the steady increase in prices of food articles, especially vegetables and edible oils.
The annual rate of inflation based on the final wholesale price index (WPI base: 1981-82=100) for the week ended August 1, for "all commodities", calculated on a point-to-point basis, also stood slightly higher at 8.1 per cent, against 8 per cent based on the provisional index.
At a disaggregate level, prices of primary articles rose 16.2 per cent on a point-to-point basis over the corresponding week of last year.
In the other two major categories, while prices of manufactured products rose 5.5 per cent, those of fuel, power, light and lubricants rose 2.8 per cent.
Within the primary commodities category, prices of food articles rose by 19.7 per cent and those of non-food articles by 14.2 per cent. Price trend of minerals, however, showed a decline of 4 per cent. In the food articles sub-category, vegetable prices emerge as the major contributor to inflation yet again, having risen 121.8 per cent over the corresponding week last year. While foodgrains (cereals and pulses) prices clipped along at 12.2 per cent, prices of eggs, fish and meat rose by 10.8 per cent. Milk and fruit prices rose 12.3 per cent each.
The 24 per cent rise in oilseed price dominated the non-food articles sub-category. The decline in the price trend for minerals sub-category is a result of falling prices of petroleum, crude & natural gas at the rate of -6.3 per cent.
In the manufactured products sector, prices of food products rose 10.1 per cent while those of edible oils 22.8 per cent.
Tea and coffee processing showed a price rise of 22 per cent.
The price for the fuel, power, light and lubricants sector did not show a significant uptrend. While electricity price showed a rise of 10. 4 per cent over the corresponding week last year, mineral oils prices actually dipped 1.8 per cent.
The 0.14 per cent rise in inflation over the past week was fuelled by a 0.4 percentage point increase in prices of food products and 0.1 per cent increase in prices of food articles.
Prices of maize, rice, arhar, masur, poultry chicken, suji, coconut oil, gur, rape, groundnut and mustard oil rose during the week when the WPI stood unchanged at 356.6 (provisional).
Interestingly, despite the shooting price of onion over the last few weeks, the index for vegetables showed a small decline during the week. This is mainly on account of the comparative small weight accorded to onions in the WPI basket. In fact, mangoes have more weightage than potatoes and onions put together.
A better barometer of the sustained price rise could be the sharp increase in inflation rates based on consumer price index (CPI) that is based on retail prices of various products. Inflation based on the CPI for Industrial Workers had spurted to 15.04 per cent in august after breaking the double digit levels in may when it touched 10.5 per cent.
