Thaindian News

New Delhi, Oct 22 (IANS) India’s annual rate of inflation, based on wholesale prices, rose to 1.21 percent for the week ended Oct 10 from 0.92 percent the week before, data released Thursday showed.
The official Wholesale Price Index (WPI) rose 0.1 percent during the week following a rise in the index for primary articles and manufactured products by 0.3 percent and 0.1 percent respectively.

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

Among primary articles, prices of fruits and vegetables fell 2 percent, and that of jowar and bajra by 1 percent.

Prices of fish and other marine products rose 14 percent, moong 5 percent, rice 3 percent and urad, arhar and wheat 1 percent, according to the data released by the industry ministry.

Over the 52-week period ended Oct 10, wholesale prices of onions went up by over 26 percent, while it rose by 20.39 percent for potatoes, 20.84 percent for vegetables, 15.62 percent for rice and 16.02 percent for pulses.

While the WPI is currently released on a weekly basis, the government had Oct 19 approved a proposal to release it evry month instead.

The base year for the new monthly inflation data will be 2004 instead of 1993 as followed now for the weekly inflation data.

The monthly WPI is expected to start Nov 14.

The government has said that the response to week-to-week inflation data was poor, particularly from the manufacturing sector, but hoped the monthly data would reflect the position better.

However, the WPI for primary articles would continue to be released every week.