Food price inflation in India falls further to 7.70 per cent

Food price inflation in the country eased further and stood at 7.70 per cent during the week ended 30 April 2011 against 8.53 per cent during the previous week, giving some hope to the government and the Reserve Bank of India in their long battle against price volatility.

Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee said while the current trend in food inflation was welcome, he hoped to see further moderation in food inflation in the coming weeks.

However, he said, sustained high non-food and primary product prices are creating cost-push inflationary conditions in the manufacturing sector. The recent hike in policy lending rates announced by the Reserve Bank should address the concern on high core inflation, he added.

Food price inflation in the country stood at 21.46 per cent during the comparable week of the previous year.

While the index for the 'food articles' group as a whole increased slightly, the prices of most pulses such as masur, gram, moong, arhar and urad as also tea declined during the week.

Food articles have a weight of 14.34 in the wholesale price index (WPI) of commodities while primary articles have a weight of 20.12, non-food articles a weight of 4.26 and fuel and power group a weight of 14.91.