New Delhi: Costlier food items, including vegetables, pushed the October wholesale inflation to 7 per cent, the highest in current financial year.
The inflation measured on the wholesale price index (WPI) was 6.46 per cent in the previous month and 7.32 per cent in the October 2012.
As per the government data released today, rate of price rise in food articles segment was at 18.19 per cent in October.
The jump in WPI inflation comes after the October retail inflation increased to 10.1 per cent, the highest in the past seven months.
WPI inflation is on the rise since April this year.
While inflation in the vegetable segment stood at 78.38 per cent in October, the rate of price rise in onion continued to remain high at 278.21 per cent.
Protein rich items like egg, meat and fish became dearer by 17.47 per cent in October as against 13.37 per cent in the previous month.
While there was slight moderation in prices of cereals and rice, wheat became dearer in October. The inflation in wheat was at 7.88 per cent last month as against 5.9 per cent in September.
The data further revealed that inflation in the manufactured products has inched up to 2.5 per cent versus 2.03 per cent in September.
The Reserve Bank had increased its key rate (repo rate) twice in its last two monetary policy reviews with an aim to check high inflation.
The WPI data released by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) further revealed that inflation in the primary articles segment also inched up to 14.68 per cent in October from 13.54 per cent in the previous month. Inflation in fuel and power segment, at the wholesale level, too was marginally up at 10.33 per cent.
"Build up inflation rate in the financial year so far was 6 per cent compared to a build up rate of 4.66 per cent in the corresponding period of the previous year," the release said.
Meanwhile, the WPI inflation for the month of August has been revised upwards to 6.99 per cent from the earlier estimated at 6.1 per cent.
