The rise was attributed to an increase in the indices of fuel, power, light and lubricants group, which went up by 0.6 per cent after remaining stationary for four successive weeks.
Inflation stood at 8.5 per cent during the corresponding period of the previous year even though the final over final computation showed a high of 8.9 per cent during the period. The official wholesale price index for all commodities (base 1981-82=100) for the week under review stood at 311.9 (provisional) as against 311.1 (provisional) for the previous week.
Higher prices of rice, wheat, bajra, ragi, arhar, masur, milk and groundnut oil, among other commodities, also contributed to the rise. The hike in petroleum prices had brought about a rise in the inflation rate during the recent weeks.
After four weeks of rise, the wholesale price indices declined by 0.19 percentage points last week. The previous rising spell had brought about an increase of as much as 1.1 percentage points before droppping last week.
The four-week rise in inflation was preceded by a four-week decline in the wholesale prices as it began with a 0.18 percentage point rise.
The breach of the five per cent mark during the week-ending July 6 also ended the under five per cent inflation run registered since the week-ended February 3, 1996.
The interregnum between the rising streak that ended last week and the previous declining spell was marked by a two-week stationary movement as, after a gap of several months, it had stood at 4.22 per cent during the weeks ending June 22 and June 29. It then moved up to 4.4 per cent during the following week.
This is also the 72nd week in succession in which inflation has veered round the single digit levels even as it failed to stretch it below five per cent levels to its 24th week.
It touched the below five per cent mark for the first time in recent weeks during the week-ended February 3, when it slid to 4.71 per cent. It touched its lowest 4.14 per cent during the week-ended May 25.
The rate of price rise for the week-ended June 29 at 4.22 per cent was the fifth lowest this year. The earlier lows include 4.14 (May 25), 4.18 (May 18), 4.19 (April 13) and 4.20 (April 6).
In the current financial year, so far inflation has broken declining spells during the four weeks ended April 20, May 11, June 1 and August 3.
Meanwhile, the annual inflation rate for the week ending June 15, 1996, based on the final indices calculated on a point-to-point basis stood at 4.4 per cent as against 4.5 computed on the basis of provisional over final index for the week.
A group-wise picture of price movement shows the index for primary articles rose by 0.2 per cent to 327 from 326.4 during the previous week. Under primary articles, the index for food articles sub-group rose by 0.5 per cent to 371.3 from 369.5 the last week. This was due to higher prices of coffee (3 per cent), gram and poultry chicken (2 per cent) and rice, wheat, bajra, ragi, arhar, masur, milk and condiment and spices (one per cent each). However, barley and tea declined by 4 per cent and 3 per cent respectively.
The index for non-food articles declined by 0.3 per cent to 332.8 from 333.9 for the last week.
Manufactured products group indices rose marginally to 301.3 from 300.3 last week. Under manufactured products, the index for food products group rose by 1.1 per cent to 290.8 from 287.6.
While the beverages, tobacco and tobacco products group increased by 0.6 per cent, textiles group declined by 0.3 per cent. Chemical and chemical products group declined marginally by 0.1 per cent and the index for basic metals, alloys and metal products group rose by 0.1 per cent.
Machinery and machine tools rose by 0.3 per cent due to higher prices of mining machinery (6 per cent), refrigerators (3 per cent), boilers, dry cell and ceiling fans (2 per cent) and tractors, ring spinning and doubling frames and power driven pumps (1 per cent). However, the prices of enamelled copper wires declined by 11 per cent.
The index for transport equipments and parts group rose by 0.7 per cent to 264.5 from 262.7 for the last week due to higher prices of diesel truck chassis (3 per cent) and diesel bus chassis (2 per cent). However, prices of jeeps declined by one per cent.
