By IANS,
New Delhi: India’s annual food inflation rose further to 15.46 percent for the week ended Sep 11, after rising dramatically by almost four percentage points to 15.1 percent during the previous week, official data released Thursday showed.
The index has dramatically risen by over five percentage points in less than a month, from 10.05 percent for the week ended Aug 14, as per data available with the commerce and industry ministry.
The annual inflation rate for the primary articles group also rose at a faster pace of 16.8 percent, having been at 16.22 percent during the week ended Sep 4, while that for fuels was unchanged at 11.48 percent compared to the previous week.
The government Sep 14 shifted the base year for the official wholesale price index to 2004-05, from the earlier 1993-94, and added as many as 241 new items to its basket of commodities. The weights for individual commodities were also altered.
The fresh data on the index numbers came against the backdrop of India’s central bank last week hiking its short-term borrowing and lending rates by 50 basis points and 25 basis points respectively to continue its tight monetary policy stance to tame prices.
The government has, however, stuck to its prediction of around 6 percent overall inflation. Planning Commission Deputy Chairperson Montek Singh Ahluwalia has said food inflation may even fall below 6 percent.
The following are the rises and falls in prices of some of the main commodities that form the sub-index for food articles over the past 52 weeks:
Cereals: 6.75 percent
Rice: 5.52 percent
Wheat: 9.21 percent
Pulses: 4.01 percent
Vegetables: 6.84 percent
Fruits: 10.33 percent
Milk: 23.41 percent
Potatoes: (-)48.56 percent
Onions: (-)1.97 percent