The annual rate of inflation based on the wholesale price index fell below  10 per cent for the first time in several months, at 8.98 per cent for the week ended 1 November, against 10.72 per cent in the previous week,
 
The official wholesale price index for 'All Commodities' (Base: 1993-94 = 100) for the week ended 1 November declined by 1.3 per cent to 235.5 (provisional) from 238.5 (provisional) for the previous week, government data showed.

Inflation of 30 essential commodities increased to 7.74 per cent as on the week ended 1  November 2008 from 7.51 per cent reported in the earlier week. There was a decline in the prices of 5 of these commodities and prices of other 16 commodities remained unchanged. Prices of remaining 9 items, viz, rice, jowar, bajra, gram, arhar, masur, potatoes, mutton, and gur witnessed some increase.

The annual rate of inflation stood at 3.35 per cent during the corresponding week (3 November 2007) of the previous year.

The index of `Primary articles' declined by 0.4 per cent to 249.0 (provisional) from 249.9  (provisional) for the previous week.

Out of a total of 98 articles, 20 articles have shown a decline in prices in the current week as compared to October 25, 2008.  Another 61 articles have shown no increase in prices.

The index for 'Food articles' group rose by 0.1 per cent to 244.1 (provisional) from 243.9  (provisional) for the previous week due to higher prices of barley (4 per cent), gram, jowar , eggs and  mutton (2 per cent each) and bajra (1 per cent). However, the prices of tea  and ragi (2 per cent each) and urad and  condiments & spices (1 per cent each) declined.

The index for 'Non-food articles' group declined by 0.2 per cent to 233.1 (provisional) from 233.6  (provisional) for the previous week due to lower prices of raw rubber and castor seed  (2 per cent each) and groundnut seed and gingelly seed (1 per cent each).

The index for 'Minerals' group declined by 6.4 per cent to 606.0 (provisional) from 647.6  (provisional) for the previous week due to lower prices of iron ore (8 per cent).

The annual rate of inflation, calculated on point- to-point basis, for 'Primary articles' stood at 11.01 per cent (provisional) for the week under review as compared to 11.41 per cent (provisional) in the previous week. It was 4.57 per cent in the same week a year ago.

The annual rate of inflation for 'Food articles' stood at 9.07 per cent (provisional) for the week ended 1 November 2008 as compared to 8.84 per cent (provisional) in the previous week. It was 2.47 per cent as of 3 November 2007.

The index for the ''Fuel, power, light & lubricants' group, declined by 3.4 per cent to 356.6 (provisional) from 369.3  (provisional) for the previous week due to lower prices of naphtha (33 per cent), aviation turbine fuel (18 per cent), furnace oil (13 per cent) and light diesel oil (6 per cent).  However, the prices of bitumen (2 per cent) moved up.

The index for `Manufactured products' declined by 0.7 per cent to 203.8 (provisional) from 205.3  (provisional) for the previous week.
 
Among this major group, the index for 'Food products' declined by 0.7 per cent to 202.7 (provisional) from 204.1 (provisional) for the previous week due to lower prices of imported edible oil (8 per cent), rice bran oil (6 per cent), oil cakes, cotton seed oil and gingelly oil (3 per cent each) and unrefined oil (1 per cent).  However, the prices of gur (6 per cent) and cattle feed (1 per cent) moved up.

The index for 'Paper & paper products' group rose by 0.2 per cent to 203.7 (provisional) from 203.2 (provisional) for the previous week due to higher prices of kraft paper (2 per cent).

The index for 'Rubber & plastic products' group declined by 0.1 per cent to 169.1 (provisional) from 169.2 (provisional) for the previous week due to marginal fall in the prices of PVC pipes and tubings. 

The index for 'Chemicals & chemical products' group rose by 0.1 per cent to 224.6 (provisional) from 224.4 (provisional) for the previous week due to higher prices of blasting powder (15 per cent) and tooth paste (3 per cent).

The index for 'Basic metals alloys & metal products' group declined by 3.3 per cent to 286.8 (provisional) from 296.7 (provisional) for the previous week due to lower prices of billets and slabs (16 per cent), blooms (15 per cent), basic pig iron and foundary pig iron (12 per cent each), angles, channels and sections (6 per cent), zinc ingots and ms bars and rounds (4 per cent each), skelps, CR coils and zinc (3 per cent each), lead ingots, other iron steel and steel sheets, plates and strips (2 per cent each) and CR sheets and bars and rods (1 per cent each).  However, the prices of heavy rails (23 kg upwards) (10 per cent), wire (all kinds) (4 per cent) and heavy light structurals (1 per cent) moved up.

The index for 'Machinery & machine tools' group rose by 0.1 per cent to 176.5 (provisional) from 176.4 (provisional) for the previous week due to higher prices of ball bearings (3 per cent).

The final index for the week ended 6 September 2008 has been revised to  12.42  per cent from the provisional 12.14  per cent.