NEW DELHI, July 12: The annual rate of inflation shot past 7 per cent to touch a 70-week high of 7.41 per cent for the week ended June 27 owing to the sustained increase in prices of primary food articles.The Wholesale Price Index-based inflation rose by 0.55 percentage points during the week to 7.41 per cent (provisional) from 6.86 per cent in the previous week and 5.65 per cent in the corresponding week last year.This is the highest since 7.77 per cent recorded in the week ended February 22, 1997.Since the beginning of the current fiscal, the rate of inflation has increased by over two percentage points. This is mainly on account of increase in the prices of primary food articles, especially vegetables, since the beginning of 1998-99.Primary food article prices have risen by 9.72 per cent, while that of vegetables rose by a whopping 54.95 per cent. In the latest week, the Primary Articles Index rose 1.1 per cent, while that of vegetables spurted by 6 per cent.However, there does not seem tobe any revival in demand in the economy as the price increase is mainly restricted to primary food articles. The prices of manufactured products have increased by only 1.74 per cent so far in the year. During the week under review, the official Wholesale Price Index for `all commodities' (base:1981-82=100) stood at 347.7 as against 346.0 for the previous week, recording an increase of 0.5 per cent. Meanwhile, inflation based on the final index for the week ended May 2 stood at 6.5 per cent compared to the provisionally estimated 6.0 per cent.The final index for all commodities for the week ended May 2 was at 343.1 as against 341.8 in the provisional index.In comparison, inflation based on the Consumer Price Index for industrial workers has already crossed 10.5 per cent in May. The comparable figure for WPI inflation was 6.4 per cent. According to latest figures available on the break-up of the primary articles, prices of potatoes have risen by 126.7 per cent between June 13 and March 14.During thereference week, commodities which registered a substantial fluction were typewriters (up 11 per cent), bajra and mesta (up 8 per cent each), handloom cloth (up 7 per cent), rape & mustard oil (up 6 per cent), mahua oil and hessian and sacking bags (up 5 per cent each) and jowar, fodder and jeeps (up 4 per cent) and camelback (down 5 per cent).Among the three major groups in WPI, indices of primary articles and manufactured products rose during the week, while the index for fuel, power, light and lubricants remained unchanged. The index for primary articles rose by 1.0 per cent to 372.O from 368.4 for the last week as indices of both food articles and non-food articles increased. Food articles' index rose by 1.1 per cent to 431.4 from 426.6 due to dearer bajra (8 per cent), jowar (4 per cent), eggs (3 per cent), maize, ragi, gram, arhar, masur and fruits & vegetables (2 per cent each) and rice, moong, milk, mutton and tea (1 per cent each). However, from the sub-group, prices of barley (1 per cent) becamecheaper during the week.The index for non-food articles rose by 0.9 per cent to 367.4 from 364.3 due to increase in the prices of mesta (8 per cent), fodder (4 per cent), raw cotton (3 per cent), raw jute, rape & mustard seed, copra, linseed and sunflower (2 per cent each) and castor seed and lac (1 per cent each). The index for fuel, power, light amd lubricants remained unchanged at 380.4 for the fourth consecutive week.The index for the third major group manufactured products rose by 0.3 per cent during the week to 327.9 from 326.8 for the previous week.
