Food price inflation edges up further to 16.49 per cent

The annual rate of inflation based on the wholesale price index of food articles edged up further to 16.49 per cent during the week ended 8 May 2010 from 16.44 per cent during the previous week.

The slight increase in inflation was due mainly to higher prices of urad and moong (2 per cent each) and fruits and vegetables and tea (1 per cent each).

Food price inflation stood at 8.28 per cent in the comparable week a year ago (week ended 9 May 2009).

The build-up of food price inflation so far during the financial year (beginning 1 April 2010) was marginally lower at 2.30 per cent during the week under review against 2.33 per cent in the previous week but lower than the 3.36 per cent level reached during the corresponding week of the previous year.

The index for the 'food articles' group declined marginally to 293.9 (provisional) from 294.0 (provisional) for the previous week due to lower prices of wheat (-2 per cent) and fish-inland, maize and gram (-1 per cent each). However, the prices of urad and moong (2 per cent each) and fruits and vegetables and tea (1 per cent each) moved up.

Inflation rate based on the wholesale price index of non-food articles eased to 18.68 per cent during the week ended 8 May 2010 from 21.24 per cent during the week earlier and 3.30 per cent in the comparable week of the previous year.