Food price inflation hits 17.05%
The pace of rise in the price of agri-commodities accelerated, with food inflation rising to 17.05 per cent for the week which ended on January 22 on account of costlier vegetables.
Even at the global level, food prices are at a higher level due to a severe drought in Russia in 2010 and floods in Australia.
The Cabinet Committee on Prices met on Thursday under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to take stock of the high food prices, which are hitting the common man hard.
The committee discussed the high prices of products like milk and steps that could be taken to bring them down. This is for the seventh straight week that inflation is in double digits. Food inflation was at 15.57 per cent in the previous week.
“Price rise always, particularly commodity price and food items, is a matter of grave concern,” finance minister Pranab Mukherjee said, adding that efforts are being made both from the demand and supply side to moderate it.
The prices of vegetable were up by 77.05 per cent and onions by 130.41 per cent as compared to last year.
The prices of fruits, milk and egg, meat and fish rose by 11 to 15 per cent.
The UN Food and Agricultural Organisation, which compiles a global food price index, says that food prices for January 2011 were at a historic high. The value of the index at 231 was 3.4 per cent higher than the figure for December, and is at the highest level ever since 1990, when FAO started to measure these prices.
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26/11 martyr kin tries to kill self
Age Correspondent
New Delhi
Feb. 3: Disturbed over the “injustice” meted out to the families of armed forces who died in the 26/11 attacks, the 55-year-old uncle of Maj. Sandeep Unnikrishnan, who was also killed in the attack, attempted self-immolation in front of Parliament House on Thursday evening. The victim, K. Mohanan, is in a critical state with 98% burns.
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