Food inflation rose to 17.94 per cent

     Food inflation rose to 17.94 per cent for the week ended January 30 from 17.56 per cent a week ago.
The WPI for the week ended January 30, 2010 rose by 0.1 per cent to 285.2 (Provisional) from 284.9 (Provisional) for the previous week.

            The annual rate of inflation, calculated on point-to-point basis, stood at 15.75 per cent  (provisional) for the week ended January 30, 2010 over (January 31, 2009) as compared to 14.56 per cent (Provisional) for the previous week (ended January 23, 2010) and 8.17 per cent during the corresponding week (ended January 31, 2009) of the previous year.

The index for 'Food Articles' group rose by 0.3 per cent to 287.3 (Provisional) from 286.5  (Provisional) for the previous week due to higher prices of pork and fruits & vegetables (2 per cent each) and fish-marine, condiments & spices and bajra (1 per cent each).  However, the prices of eggs (5 per cent), arhar and tea
(3 per cent each), urad and gram (2 per cent each) and fish-inland, masur and barley (1 per cent each) declined.

The index for 'Non-Food Articles' group declined by 0.5 per cent to 255.6 (Provisional) from 256.8 (Provisional) for the previous week due to lower prices of skins (raw) (4 per cent), raw rubber (3 per cent), raw cotton (2  per cent) and linseed and mesta (1 per cent each).  However, the prices of raw silk, copra and groundnut seed (1 per cent each) moved up.