Lower food prices give marginal relief
Lower food prices give marginal relief
New Delhi: The inflation rate decelerated marginally to 6.63% for the week ended 10 February, the second-highest this year, due to lower food prices. The rate measured by the wholesale price index at the same point last year was 3.81%.
The current surge in inflation levels has been led by rise in prices of food articles and select manufactured products. For the latest week ended, the annual increase in prices for food articles such as cereals was 5.5% and that for manufactured items was 6.4%.
Most analysts believe there will not be any immediate turnaround in the inflationary outlook. A. Prasanna, V-P, fixed income, ICICI Securities, said, “WPIinflation should stay above 6.5% till Marchand start edging back only in the new fiscal."
Meanwhile, the government continued with its anti-inflation rhetoric, with President Kalam telling the joint session of Parliament that the government was committed to ensuring that “the poor are not adversely affected by inflation".
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