Comments
Food inflation eased sharply to touch a three-week low on the back of cheaper pulses and last year's high base effect.
The annual Wholesale Price Index-based food inflation estimate for the week ended July 9 was 7.58 per cent, down from the previous week's annual rise of 8.31 per cent, according to data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry on Thursday. The index was unchanged on a week-on-week basis. The corresponding inflation estimate for the same week in July last year was a high 19.52 per cent.
The index for fuels and power continued to hold steady at 11.89 per cent during the latest reported week.
According to the data, while pulses were down 7.67 per cent year-on-year, inflation in most food items continued to rise or stay at elevated levels. Headline inflation stood at 9.44 per cent in June. It has remained consistently above the 9 per cent mark since December 2010.
During the latest week, onions surged 19.68 per cent on an annual basis while fruits shot up 15.84 per cent. Milk too rose 10.76 per cent while the eggs, meat and fish subgroup inched up close to 8 per cent annually. Cereals and vegetables were up 4.77 per cent and 4.31 per cent, respectively, year-on-year.
The index for Primary Articles, which comprises food and non-food articles, saw little change at 197.7 in the week ended July 9, compared with 197.6 in the previous week. On a year-on-year basis, the index rose 11.13 per cent, slower than the previous week's 11.58 per cent.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.