Thaindian News

New Delhi, June 2 (IANS) India’s food inflation declined 0.49 percentage points to 8.06 percent for the week ended May 21, with a marginal fall in the prices of vegetables, fruits, eggs, meat and fish, official data showed Thursday.

Food inflation had soared to 8.55 percent the week before to the highest level in a month.

As per data released by the commerce and industry ministry, the annual food inflation rose for the first time in the past four weeks. Food inflation was 7.47 percent for the week ended May 7 and 7.7 percent in the previous week.

“The numbers have shown some improvement but it is too early to say that inflation will fall in the coming months. We still have to see the impact of the fuel price hike,” said Siddharth Shankar, director of Kassa, a financial services group.

“I am hopeful that the Reserve Bank of India will not touch the rates in the June meeting.”

The index for fruits fell to 30.51 percent year-on-basis year for the week under review, from a high of 32.37 percent in the week before. The annual increase for cereals also came down to 4.78 percent from 5.03 percent.

Prices of eggs, meat and fish declined to 5.50 percent from 8.26 percent.

But the annual inflation for milk rose to 7.04 percent from 5.53 percent, while that for onions also soared to 12.32 percent from 8.32 percent.

The following are the yearly rise and fall in prices of some main commodities that form the sub-index for food articles:

Onions: 12.32 percent

Vegetables: (-) 1.06 percent

Fruits: 30.51 percent

Potatoes: (-) 2.15 percent

Milk: 7.04 percent

Eggs, meat, fish: 5.50 percent

Cereals: 4.78 percent

Rice: 2.51 percent

Wheat: (-) 0.30 percent

Pulses: (-) 9.22 percent