Lower manufactured product prices bring inflation to 4.61%

New Delhi, Sep 24 (UNI) The annual rate of inflation further dipped to 4.61 per cent for the week ended September 9 as against 4.78 per cent the previous week on account of lower price of manufactured products.

RBI governor Y V Reddy on Thursday said he was concerned about inflationary expectations despite a fall in oil prices to six-month lows however Finance Minister P Chidambaram said there was probably no need for further interest rate rises.

''At the current interest rate level we should be able to contain inflation as well as sustain and support the growth,'' Mr Chidambaram said.

The central bank expects annual inflation to be between 5 to 5.5 per cent by the end of the fiscal year in March 2007 and is due to review monetary policy on October 31.

The inflation rate calculated on point-to-point basis, stood at 4.11 per cent during the corresponding week of the previous year, according to official figures released here today.

The Wholesale Price Index (WPI) for all commodities for the week ended September 9, 2006, rose by 0.3 per cent to 206.6 from 206.0 the previous week.

The index for the Primary Articles group rose by 1.6 per cent to 212.0 from 208.6 for the previous week.

The index for Food Articles group rose by 2.4 per cent to 215.5 from 210.4 for the previous week due to higher prices of fruits and vegetables (7 per cent), moong (5 per cent), arhar (4 per cent), jowar and milk (3 per cent each), gram, condiments and spices and eggs (2 per cent each) and mutton, urad and ragi (1 per cent each).

The index for Non-Food Articles group declined by 0.2 per cent to 187.9 from 188.3 for the previous week due to lowerv prices of raw rubber (9 per cent) and mesta (5 per cent).

However, the prices of niger seed (3 per cent) and groundnut seed (1 per cent) moved up.

MORE UNI PV RA VC1150