Thaindian News

New Delhi, Oct 13 (IANS) India’s food inflation dipped marginally to 9.32 percent for the week ended Oct 1, but still remained far above comfortable levels of policymakers, official data showed Thursday.

Food inflation had risen to 9.41 percent in the week ending Sep 24.

Food inflation had risen sharply since the week ending Sep 10 with spikes in some items being attributed to lower output because of heavy rains.

In the week under review, the primary articles index, which has a 20.12 percent weight in the wholesale price index, rose by 10.6 percent during the week under review as compared to 10.84 percent in the previous week, according to data made available by the commerce and industry ministry.

The index of fuel and power rose, reflecting the hike in prices of petrol and CNG, and increased to 15.1 percent.

During the week ended Oct 1, the index for non-food articles rose at a much slower rate of 9.59 percent as compared to 10.77 percent in the previous week.

Inflation has remained stubbornly high near double-digit since January 2010. The headline inflation based on the wholesale price index was recorded at 9.78 percent in August, according to the latest official data.

The RBI has already indicated that it will continue to raise rates till the point inflation begins to start coming down significantly. The stubbornly high inflation might prompt the RBI to hike policy rates again. The central bank has hiked key policy rates 12 times since January 2010.

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

Onions: (-) 10.15 percent

Vegetables: 13.01 percent

Fruits: 12.19 percent

Potatoes: 3.79 percent

Eggs, meat, fish: 9.92 percent

Cereals: 5.41 percent

Rice: 5.86 percent

Wheat: (-) 0.24 percent

Pulses: 6.87 percent