Inflation continues its upward march

India’s annual rate of inflation continued to march upwards for the second successive week on the back of price rise in food grains, food items, non-food items, metals, minerals and fuel oils.

According to the latest wholesale price index (WPI), the annual rate of inflation calculated on point-to-point basis surged to 0.57%, for the week ended April 18 from 0.26% for the week ended April 11, while it was at 8.23% during the corresponding week of the previous year.

This 31 basis point increment was held due to higher prices of food articles include tea (7%), urad (5%), condiments & spices (4%); food items include rice bran oil (11%), khandsari and cotton seed oil (8% each), imported edible oil (6%), gur (5%), sugar and oil cakes (3% each), groundnut oil (2%); and non-food items include mesta (11%), raw rubber (5%), gingelly seed, rape & mustard seed and groundnut seed (3% each).

The minerals include steatite (35 %) and iron ore (27%), metals include zinc and lead ingots (7% each), zinc ingots (4%) and pipes & tubes (2%), and aviation turbine fuel (8%) and furnace oil (2%) also contributed heavily to the increasing inflation.

The annual rate of inflation for all commodities based on final index, calculated on point to point basis for the week ended Feb 21 stood at 2.99% in comparison to earlier reported 3.03% (provisional) vide press note on March 05.