Inflation touches 136-week high of 8.08%

NEW DELHI, July 26: The annual rate of inflation touched a 136-week high of 8.08 per cent for the week ended July 11, as pressure on pric...

NEW DELHI, July 26: The annual rate of inflation touched a 136-week high of 8.08 per cent for the week ended July 11, as pressure on prices of primary articles, especially vegetables, continued unabated. This is the highest inflation since November 18, 1995, when it touched 8.3 per cent.

The rate of increase in price rise, based on the Wholesale Price Index (WPI), rose by 0.49 percentage points during the week to 8.08 per cent (provisional) from 7.59 per cent in the previous week. The rate in the corresponding week last year was 4.14 per cent.

The rise is mainly on account of an increase in the price of vegetables, which have gone up by a whopping 71.48 per cent since the beginning of the current fiscal. During the year so far, the index of primary food articles as a whole has risen by 12.17 per cent.

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According to figures placed in parliament, prices of onion and potato in Delhi have risen by 116 per cent and 50 per cent since the presentation of the budget.

Economists suggest that the increase ininflation is not due to a pick-up in demand as prices of manufactured products have remained more or less stagnant.

During the week, the official WPI for all commodities rose by 0.5 per cent to 350.5 compared to 348.7 in the previous week.

Inflation based on the final index for the week ended May 16 stood at 6.6 per cent as against 6.4 per cent on the provisional index during the same week.

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The final index for all commodities stood at 343.9 as against 343.1 on the provisional index.

In comparison, inflation based on the consumer price index for industrial workers has already peaked at 10.5 per cent in may. The comparable figure for WPI inflation was 6.4 per cent.

Among the three major groups in the index, indices of "primary articles" and "manufactured products" rose during the week, while index of fuel, power, light & lubricants declined. Commodities, which registered substantial price rise during the week were: cotton seed oil (18 per cent), formaldehyde (14 per cent), trailors (13 per cent),cotton seed (8 per cent), gingelly seed (6 per cent), fruits & vegetables (5 per cent), arhar, eggs, raw silk and pipes & tubes (4 per cent each). During the week, the index primary articles shot up by 1.3 per cent to 377.9 from 373.2.