Wholesale Price Index and price rise in food commodities

New Delhi, Aug 11 (UNI) In the overall inflation rate which stood at 12.01 per cent for the week ending July 26, the contribution of food articles is 5.58 per cent compared to the last year figure of 9.74 per cent as on July 28, 2007.

The point to point annual inflation was negative for ragi (-0.18 per cent), moong (-0.39 per cent), urad (-9.1 per cent), potato (-17.27 per cent), onion (-29.18 per cent) and groundnut oil (-0.96 per cent) and higher in the case of pulses (2.24 per cent), gram (5.79 per cent), masur (16.14 per cent), tea (36.61 per cent) as well as sugar group (2.32 per cent) as compared to the previous week, according to an official release here today.

Under all-India price trends, over the week, prices of wheat remained steady at all reporting centers except for an increase at Bangalore.

Prices of sugar remained steady at all the reporting centers except for an increase at Bhubaneshwar and Shillong.

Prices of gram dal remained steady at all the reporting centers excluding Lucknow only, which recorded an increase.

Prices of tur dal remained steady at all reporting centers except for an increase at Bangalore and decrease at Lucknow, Agartala, Bhubaneshwar and Chennai.

Retail Prices of food commodities at Delhi in the week ending August 6, 2008: Prices of gram dal, tur dal and mustard oil remained steady during the week. Prices remained stable for a month for rice while prices of wheat, atta, groundnut oil, milk and salt have remained steady during the last six months.

Price of vanaspati declined while prices of tea, potato and onion showed a rise.

Price trend for potato and onion: The presently stored onion is arriving in different mandies and markets and the prices are ruling high as compared to June '08. The increase in onion prices is due to lean period when no fresh crop is available. Besides, there was scanty rain in the onion producing areas of Nasik district (Maharashtra) and Gujarat owing to which the sowing of kharif crop is less and delayed.

The farmers and traders are brining their stored stock of onion in mandies slowly to get the benefit of high prices in near future.

There is still about 22 lakh MTs of onion available in store in different states of the country which is sufficient to meet domestic demand during the coming months up to November '08.

NAFED has increased onion MEP by 20 US dollar per MT to 250 dollars from August 1, 2008 so that onion prices for domestic consumers may remain at reasonable levels.

Presently, stored potato is arriving at different mandies/markets.

In Azadpur (Delhi) the prices are ruling between Rs 300-400 per qtl with modal rate of Rs 350 per qtl. However, the rates for fresh potato from HP are ruling between Rs 600-1000 per qtl with modal rate of Rs 800 per qtl. The prices were ruling low during the month of July '08 as compared to last year of the same period owing to more storage of potato in different states of the country.

The reason for recent increase in prices of potato is scattered shower in the western part of the country.

Status of Imports of pulses: Public Sector Undertakings(PSUs) have contracted import of about 1.4 million tonnes of pulses in 2007-08 of which about 1.22 million tonnes has arrived and 1.10 million tonnes have been disposed of till July 31, 2008, the release added.

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