NEW DELHI, June 7: The annual rate of inflation continued its sharp upward March and touched 6.51 per cent for the week ended May 23 compared to 6.35 per cent a week ago. Exactly a year ago prices stood at 5.67 per cent.Inflation ruled over the six per cent mark for the fourth successive week as the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) rose due to a spurt in prices of soyabean, urad and milk, cotton seed oil, kardi oil, rape and mustard seed oil, gur, cigarettes and industrial alcohol.However, the actual rise in prices during the week could be still higher given the huge differential of 40 per cent between the WPI-based inflation rate and the CPI based rate for the month of April. This is in addition to the 0.5 per cent differential between the provisionally estimated WPI figures and the final estimates released five to six weeks later.Inflation based on CPI for industrial workers shot past the eight per cent mark to 8.2 per cent in April against five per cent calculated on the WPI basis. Meanwhile, inflationbased on the final index for the week ended on March 28 (the latest available) stood at 5.3 per cent.
