Inflation rises further at 6.58%, highest in 2 yrs

New Delhi, Feb 11: Even though the government took steps to curb rising prices, the annual rate of inflation continued its climb to stand at 6.58 per cent for the week ended January 27, highest in two years, as compared to 6.11 per cent last week due to higher food prices.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram said the government is committed to moderate the rising inflation with additional steps that would take some time to bring down prices.

He said prices of various commodities have come down after fiscal measures and the RBI's decision to increase repo rate by 0.25 per cent to 7.5 per cent and increased provisioning for certain sectors.

The rate of inflation, calculated on a point-to-point basis, was 4.04 per cent during the corresponding week of the previous year, according to official figures issued here.

The Wholesale Price Index (WPI) for all commodities for the week ended January 27, rose by 0.1 per cent to 208.8 from 208.5 for the previous week.

The index for the Primary Articles group rose by 0.6 per cent to 215.0 from 213.7 for the previous week.

The index for Food Articles group rose by 0.7 per cent to 216.1 from 214.6 for the previous week due to higher prices of beef and buffalo meat (9 per cent), poultry chicken, ragi, arhar, milk and moong (2 per cent each) and jowar, fish-marine and fruits and vegetables (1 per cent each).

However, the prices of gram (3 per cent) and condiments and spices (2 per cent) declined.

The index for Non-Food articles group rose by 0.5 per cent to 196.0 from 195.0 for the previous week due to higher prices of soyabean (5 per cent) and groundnut seed and sunflower (3 per cent each).

However, the prices of sufflower (kardi seed), rape and mustard seed and raw rubber (2 per cent each) and raw cotton, gingelly seed and castor seed (1 per cent each) declined.

UNI