Inflation trebles on food prices

New Delhi, Dec. 14: Inflation jumped more than three-fold in November to touch 4.78 per cent due to sky rocketing food prices. The Wholesale Price Index was at 1.3 per cent in October.

The high inflation was mostly driven by primary articles (up by 11.8 per cent), with food products being the major contributor (up by 16.7 per cent).

Within food, the items which contributed to the spurt in inflation, were potatoes, whose prices had gone up by 101.58 per cent, pulses (35.22 per cent), onion (32.41 per cent), vegetables (16.92 per cent), cereals (13.57 per cent), wheat (12.66 per cent), rice (12.95 per cent), fruits (10.64 per cent) and milk (11.49 per cent). The sugar prices rose by 53.76 per cent.

The high food inflation didn’t come as a surprise as the weekly food inflation data for the last week of November had show it at 19.05 per cent. Last month, the government switched to monthly inflation data for all commodities, except for food and fuel inflation, whose data is released on weekly basis.

“There is an inflationary pressure on food items. It is a matter of concern,” said the finance minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee.

However, the finance secretary, Mr Ashok Chawla, said the government expec-ted that high food inflation would reflected in the WPI.

“It is not as if we are taken by surprise or that there is any cause for any special emergency measure at this stage,” Mr Chawla said.

He said the RBI and the Central government had already indicated that the WPI would be around six per cent by March 2010.