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Journalism of Courage
Though inflation did not go up further in the week which ended on July 17, it continued to remain high at the previous weeks level of 6.52 per cent.
However, the high level of inflation did not perturb the government much as the finance secretary D.C. Gupta said that the RBI’s projections of 5-5.5 per cent inflation rate for the fiscal would hold good in the long run.
Gupta told agencies that “RBI has pegged inflation at 5-5.5 per cent for 2004-05 and it has not changed its forecast. There is no reason to believe that inflation will increase beyond that.” According to him, high oil prices, deficient rainfall and its impact on the agriculture product prices are some of the reasons for the high inflation rate.
International crude oil prices continued to rule around $39 per barrel mainly on supply fears.
While inflation remained constant at 6.52 per cent, WPI rose by 0.1 per cent to 184.7, mainly on account of a 0.1 per cent rise each in prices of primary articles and manufactured products.
Food articles group index remained unchanged at previous week’s level of 183.3 although prices rose for bajra (5 per cent), maize (3 per cent), jowar, arhar, fish-inland (2 per cent each), barley, ragi, moong, urad and fish-marine (1 per cent each). However, eggs were cheaper by 4 per cent, tea (3 per cent) and fruits, vegetables, condiments and spices (1 per cent each).
Non-food articles group index rose to 194.6 from 192.5 mainly due to higher prices of sunflower (10 per cent), niger seed (6 per cent), castor seed (5 per cent), soyabean (3 per cent), rape seed and mustard seed, raw cotton, raw wool (1 per cent each).
Manufactured products index rose to 164.4 from 164.3 mainly due to rise in prices of textiles, tobacco, machinery and machine tools and rubber, although food products and chemicals became cheaper.
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RBI not to change inflation target
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• MUMBAI: Though the inflation level has been surging of late, RBI deputy governor Rakesh Mohan says there is no change in RBI’s March-end inflation target of 5 per cent. ‘‘RBI was keeping a tight watch on inflation and there was reason for optimism on inflation. The consumer price index inflation was still around 3 per cent and had not shown signs of rising whereas the headline wholesale price index inflation had risen in recent weeks,’’ he said. |
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