Inflation up to 7.59%

In the last four months, prices of vegetables shot up by an astronomical 68.41 per cent, while that of edible oils rose by 8.07 per cent.

However, finance Minister Yashwant Sinha brushed aside the recent spurt in prices as a`seasonal’ phenomenon and said prices would stabilise once supplies improved. He said prices of vegetables, particularly potatoes and onions, have shot up following a crop failure due to excessive heat this year and with arrival of the monsoons there are prospects of an improvement in prices.

During the week, index (base:1981-82=100) for `all commodities’ recorded a rise of 0.3 per cent to 348.7 (P) from 347.7 (P) in the previous week and 324.1 per cent in the corresponding week of last year.

Inflation based on the final index for the week ended on May 9 (the latest available) stood at 6.6 per cent compared to the provisionally estimated 6.1 per cent.

The final index for all commodities for the week stood at 343.6 as against 342.2 in the provisional index.

In comparison, inflation based on consumer price index for industrial workers (CPI-IW) shot past the two-digit mark to stand at 10.5 per cent in May. The comparable figure for WPI inflation was 6.4 per cent. Among the three major groups in WPI,indices of `primary articles’ and `manufactured products’ rose during the week, while index of `fuel, power, light & lubricants’ remained unchanged.

During the reference week commodities which registered substantial swings were; zarda (up 24 per cent), cigarettes (up 12 per cent), rape & mustard oil (up 8 per cent). During the week, primary articles rose by 0.3 per cent to 373.2 from 372.0 for the last week as indices of both ‘food articles’ and ‘non-food articles’ increased.The food articles’ index rose by 0.2 per cent to 432.4 f rom 431.4.