Food inflation rises further, at 11.43 percent
A week after it breached double digits, India's food inflation continued with its upward climb and was recorded at 11.43 percent for the week ended Oct 15, official data showed Thursday.
The rise was due to a jump in prices of pulses, milk and vegetables. Food inflation had crossed double digits in the previous week at 10.6 percent.
The soaring food inflation comes even as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) hiked key interest rates for the 13th straight time Tuesday. The central bank has, however, said that it expects inflation to fall from December.
"Inflation rate will begin falling in December 2011 and then continue down a steady path to 7 percent by March 2012. It is expected to moderate further in the first half of 2012-13," RBI Governor Duvvuri Subbarao had said while reading out the second quarter monetary policy review.
In the week under review, the primary articles index, which has a 20.12 percent weight in the wholesale price index, rose by 11.75 percent during the week under review as compared to 11.18 percent in the previous week, according to data made available by the commerce and industry ministry.
The index of fuel and power declined marginally to 14.7 percent.
During the week ended Oct 15, the index for non-food articles again showed a significant decline, growing at a slower rate of 7.67 percent as compared to 8.51 percent in the previous week.
Inflation has remained stubbornly high near double-digit since January 2010. The headline inflation based on the wholesale price index was recorded at 9.72 percent in September, according to the latest official data.
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