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Inflation rises for seventh successive week
Mirroring the uptrends in prices of food articles and food products, the inflation rate witnessed yet another rise for the seventh successive week to touch its 60-week high of 6.67 per cent on May 30. It was 6.51 per cent in the preceding week. However, it was 5.57 per cent during the corresponding week last year. The recent 0.16 per cent increase in the inflation rate was on account of the substantial hike in prices of rice, wheat, niger seed, kardi oil, maize, groundnut oil, beer, sacking bags and hessian cloth. But the prices of urad, lac, sunflower seed and filament yarn synthetic declined during the week under review. It is for the second time running that the inflation rose by the identical margin of 0.16 per cent. It has been hovering above 6 per cent for the fifth successive week since May 2, the day it crossed the barrier for the first time in 50 weeks. The inflation rate saw a rise of 1.89 per cent during the seven week period since April 18. In the previous week, (on April 11) the inflation rate fell to its lowest in 15 weeks to 4.78 per cent. It has been in single digit for the 166th weeks in running, erasing the old record of 1993 when it stood in single digits for 52 weeks in a row. For the 10th week in succession, the official wholesale price index for all commodities (base 1981-82) recorded a rise of 0.1 per cent to touch 343.9 during the week ended May 30 as against the 343.5 in the previous week.