Thursday, August 7, 2008

Inflation crosses 12%

The rate of inflation breached the psychological barrier of 12 per cent for the week ended July 26, mainly on account of higher prices of certain edibles such as pulses, spices, eggs, fish and meat and some manufactured products.
However, even as the wholesale price index (WPI)-based inflation peaked to a new high of 12.01 per cent — the highest level in over 13 years — from 11.98 per cent a week earlier, the Finance Ministry maintained that the rate of price rise was “stable” on a week-on-week basis.
The WPI data released here on Thursday said that while the prices of most food articles inched up, some other items such as fruits witnessed a moderation in prices. As for iron and steel, the prices remained unchanged while that of cement went up marginally.
In a statement, the Ministry pointed out that in the ‘primary articles’ group, the annual point-to-point inflation at 10.32 per cent was lower than 10.84 per cent reported for the week ended June 28, 2008.

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