Costly food pushes inflation up to 4.10 %

New Delhi, Aug 24 (UNI) Costly food items and manufactured products pushed Inflation marginally up to 4.10 per cent for the week ended August 11, from 4.05 per cent previous week.

The annual inflation rate was 5.07 per cent during the corresponding week last year, an official statement said here today.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Wednesday had informed the parliament that the government will aim to keep the inflation close to 4.0 per cent.

The Minister also said there would be pressure on food prices until the production of wheat, rice and pulses was stepped up.

The Wholesale Price Index (WPI) for all commodities for the week ended August 11, 2007 rose by 0.1 per cent to 213.4 from 213.1 for the previous week.

The index for 'Primary Food Articles' rose by by 0.4 per cent to 223.5 from 222.5 for the previous week.

The index for the 'Food Articles' group declined by 0.7 per cent to 221.8 (Provisional) from 220.3 for the previous week due to higher prices of fruits and vegetables (four per cent) and bajra (three per cent), masur (two per cent ) and gram (one per cent).

However, the prices of moong (five per cent), mutton (four per cent), eggs (two per cent) and urad (one per cent) declined.

The index for 'Non-Food Articles' group declined by 0.1 per cent to 210.0 (Provisional) from 210.3 (Provisional) for the previous week due to lower prices of groundnut seed (two per cent).

However, the prices of raw rubber (five per cent), niger seed (three per cent) and sunflower (one per cent) moved up.

The index for 'Fuel, Power, Light and Lubricants' group remained unchanged at its previous week's level of 322.1.

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