India's food price inflation zooms to 18.32 per cent

India's wholesale price-based inflation rate spurted further to hit a high of 18.32 per cent during the week ended 25 December 2010, from 14.44 per cent in the previous week, amidst rising prices of onion and other essential items.

The spike in inflation has been aided by an across-the-board jump in the prices of almost all essential commodities, including fruits and vegetables, fish, mutton, urad, milk, egg and meat, condiments and spices and pulses.

Food price inflation in the country stood at 19.90 per cent during the corresponding period of the previous year.

Build-up of food price inflation so far during the financial year (beginning 1 April 2010) was 17.09 per cent (provisional) against 10.90 per cent (provisional) in the similar period of the previous year.

The index for the 'food articles' group rose 2.5 per cent to 192.5 (provisional) from 187.8 (provisional) in the previous week due to higher prices of fruits and vegetables (up 7 per cent), fish-sweetwater, mutton, urad, milk and egg (up 2 per cent) and beef and buffalo meat, condiments and spices, poultry chicken and gram (up 1 per cent each). However, the prices of fish-marine (down 2 per cent) and masur and bajra (down 1 per cent each) declined.

Inflation rate for the `non-food articles' group, however, stood lower at 22.39 per cent (provisional) during the week ended 25 December 2010 against 23.13 per cent (provisional) during the previous week and 10.70 per cent during the comparable week of the previous year.