India's food price inflation climbs further to 12.21 per cent

Food price inflation in India continued its upward push, hitting a 9-month high of 12.21 per cent during the week ended 22 October 2011 against 11.43 per cent in the previous week, mainly on account of rising prices of milk, meat and fish.

At 12.21 per cent the annual rate of inflation based on food prices in the week ended 22 October is also the highest since the week ended 29 January when it touched 12.90 per cent. Food inflation in India stood at 13.55 per cent during the comparable week of the previous year.

Data published by the government also reflect the changing trends in India where the urban middle class is consuming more high-value and high-protein foods.

Build-up of food inflation so far during the financial year (beginning 1 April 2011) was 12.90 per cent against 9.61 per cent during the similar period of the previous year.

The index for the 'food articles' group rose 0.7 per cent to 202.2 (provisional) from 200.8 (provisional) during the previous week due to higher prices of fish (up 9 per cent), poultry chicken and seafood (up 4 per cent each), egg, condiments and spices and ragi (up 2 per cent each) and gram, tea and bajra (up 1 per cent each).  However, the prices of moong (down 3 per cent), masur (down 2 per cent) and barley, arhar, urad and fruits and vegetables (down 1 per cent each) declined.

Inflation rate for the non-food articles group was lower at 6.43 per cent during the week ended 22 October 2011 against 7.67 per cent during the previous week. It was 25.09 per cent during the comparable week of the previous year.