India's food inflation down sharply at 8 per cent

The annual rate of inflation based on wholesale food prices in India declined to 8.00 per cent during the week ended 19 November 2011, from 9.01 per cent during the previous week, as prices of most essential commodities eased further. The rate of food price inflation was 9.03 per cent during the similar period in the previous year.

The declining trend seen in food prices has given some hope to policy makers in New Delhi that prices would reach more comfortable levels of 5-6 per cent towards the end of the fiscal.

Build-up of food inflation so far during the financial year (beginning 1 April 2011) was 9.27 per cent against 10.22 per cent during the similar period of the previous year.

The index for the 'food articles' group declined 1.4 per cent to 195.7 (provisional) during the week ended 19 November 2011 from 198.5 (provisional) during the previous week due to lower prices of fruits and vegetables (down 5 per cent), ragi (down 3 per cent), fish-marine (down 2 per cent) and jowar, gram, masur, poultry chicken and condiments and spices (down 1 per cent each). However, the prices of maize, milk, mutton, pork and tea (up 1 per cent each) moved up.

Inflation rate for the non-food articles group too was lower at 2.14 per cent during the week ended 19 November 2011 against 4.05 per cent during the previous week. It was 26.93 per cent during the comparable week of the previous year.

Build-up of inflation for the group so far during the year (beginning 1 April 2011) was (-) 7.82 per cent against 14.87 per cent in the year-before week.