Costlier food pushes inflation to 6.09 pc

New Delhi, Apr 22: The annual rate of inflation stood at 6.09 per cent for the week ended April 7, breaching the six per cent mark after two consecutive weeks, due to rise in food prices.

The headline inflation calculated on a point-to-point basis was 5.74 per cent last week and 3.81 per cent during the corresponding week a year ago, official data showed.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram this week asked the public sector banks to go slow on disbursals of home and other consumption loans to help fight inflation.

''We have advised banks that credit growth of about 30 per cent has to be moderated therefore they have to rebalance their portfolio and moderate credit growth to what RBI calls high-risk sectors like commercial real estate, capital markets and systematically important NBFCs,'' he said.

The Wholesale Price Index (WPI) for all commodities for the week ended April 7, rose by 0.4 per cent to 210.8 from 210 for the previous week.

The index for the Primary Articles group rose by 1.4 per cent to 218.9 from 215.9 for the previous week.

The index for Food Articles group rose by 1.8 per cent to 218.6 from to 214.8 for the previous week due to higher prices of fruits and vegetables (10 per cent), barley (five per cent), masur (three per cent), bajra, condiments and spices and urad (one per cent each).

However, the prices of poultry chicken (six per cent) and gram and fish-marine (two per cent each) declined.

The index for Non-Food Articles group rose by 0.6 per cent to 204 from 202.8 for the previous week due to higher prices of raw rubber (three per cent), raw cotton (two per cent) and gingelly seed and groundnut seed (one per cent each).

However, the prices of linseed and niger seed (two per cent each) and copra (one per cent) declined.

The index for fuel, power, light and lubricants group rose by 0.1 per cent to 320.5 from 320.1 for the previous week due to higher prices of aviation turbine fuel (five per cent) and furnace oil (two per cent). The index for Manufactured Products group rose by 0.1 per cent to 183.5 from 183.4 for the previous week.

The index for Food Products group rose by 0.1 per cent to 186.8 from 186.6 for the previous week due to higher prices of imported edible oil (four per cent), rice bran oil (three per cent), oil cakes and gingelly oil (two per cent each) and rape and mustard oil (one per cent).

However, the prices of sunflower oil (five per cent), bran (all kinds) and soyabean oil (three per cent each), salt (two per cent) and groundnut oil, atta, gur and hydrogenated vanaspati (one per cent each) declined.

The index for textiles group declined by 0.2 per cent to 133.1 from 133.4 for the previous week due to lower prices of hessian cloth (five per cent) and hessian and sacking bags (three per cent).

However, the prices of viscose staple fibre (two per cent) moved up.

The index for Chemicals and Chemicals Products group declined by 0.1 per cent to 197.4 from 197.5 for the previous week due to lower prices of caustic soda (two per cent) and acid (all kinds) and carbon black (one per cent each).

However, the prices of bopp film (four per cent) moved up.

The index for Basic Metal Alloys and Metal Products group rose by 0.2 per cent to 242.2 from 241.7 for the previous week due to higher prices of other iron steel and steel sheets, plates and strips (four per cent each) ms bars and rounds (three per cent), zinc ingots and lead ingots (two per cent each) and foundary pig iron and basic pig iron (one per cent each).

The index for machinery and machine tools group rose by 0.1 per cent to 162.2 from 162.1 for the previous week due to higher prices of sewing machines (two per cent) and boilers, its parts and accessories (one per cent).

UNI