India's annual food price inflation up over 13 percent

Based on the new guidelines on disclosing the official wholesale price index, India's annual rate of inflation based for primary articles and fuels stood unaltered at minus 6.2 percent for the week ended Oct 24, official data showed Thursday.

The annual inflation rate for food articles was sharply higher at 13.39 percent for the week under review. Similarly, the annual rise in the index for pulses was 23.44 percent and that for cereals was 11.15 percent. The meat, eggs and poultry index rose 25 percent.

The statistics released by the industry ministry showed that during the week ended Oct 24, there was a 3 percent rise in prices of moong, 2 percent rise each in prices of wheat and bajra, while condiments, spices and gram became dearer by 1 percent.

Prices of fish, however, fell 3 percent, fruits and vegetables became cheaper by 2 percent, while barley and jowar prices fell 1 percent each. Under non-food primary articles, raw silk prices rose 6 percent and raw rubber became dearer by 3 percent.

The index for fuel, power, light and lubricants remained unchanged.

As per a decision taken by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, the weekly index numbers on prices will not be released for manufactured products, but limited to primary articles and fuels. While primary articles have a 22 percent weight, fuels carry a 14 percent weight.

The full data on wholesale price index will only be released on a monthly basis.

Both the Reserve Bank of India and the government have warned India's annual inflation rate based on wholesale price index for all commodities will rise to 6-6.5 percent by March, while the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council has pegged it at 6 percent.

---Indo-Asian News Service

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( 302 Words)

2009-11-05-12:49:31 (IANS)

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