Wholesale price inflation hits a high of 7% in October

The annual rate of inflation based on wholesale price index (WPI) rose to 7 per cent in October 2013, the highest so far during the financial year, on the back of costlier food items, including vegetables.

WPI inflation stood at 6.46 per cent in the previous month and 7.32 per cent during the corresponding month of the previous year.

Build-up of inflation so far during the financial year was 6 per cent, compared with a build-up of 4.66 per cent in the corresponding period of the previous year.

As per government data released today, the price index of food articles stood at 18.19 per cent in October.

Consumer price inflation in October had also increased to 10.1 per cent, the highest in the past seven months.

WPI inflation has been on the rise since April this year.

The rate of price rise in onion continued to remain high at 278.21 per cent in October even as inflation for the vegetable segment as a whole stood at 78.38 per cent.

The rise in index has been due to an increase in the prices of protein-rich items like egg, meat and fish, which became dearer by 17.47 per cent in October against a 13.37 per cent increase in the previous month.

While there was slight moderation in prices of rice, wheat became dearer in October. Wheat prices rose 7.88 per cent last month as against 5.9 per cent in September.

The index for the fuel and power group rose 0.9 per cent due to an increase in electricity tariffs.

Inflation in manufactured products has inched up to 2.5 per cent from 2.03 per cent in September.

The Reserve Bank had increased its key rate (repo rate) twice in its last two monetary policy reviews with the aim of checking high inflation.

The final inflation rate for August, based on the revised wholesale price index for all commodities for the month stood higher at 6.99 per cent against the 6.10 per cent estimated earlier.