Food inflation drops sharply to 10.30 percent

NEW DELHI - India’s annual food inflation declined sharply by two percentage points to 10.30 percent for the week ended Nov 6 from 12.30 percent in the previous week, showing a downward trend for the fifth consecutive week.

The annual inflation rate for the primary articles group declined to 13.30 percent during the week under review from 14.87 percent in the previous week, according to data released by the commerce and industry ministry Thursday.

Food inflation as well as the inflation based on wholesale prices have moderated in the past few weeks due to aggressive monetary tightening policy adopted by the country’s central bank.

The headline inflation based on wholesale prices fell to 8.58 percent in October from 8.62 in the month before.

Fuels and power inflation dropped marginally to 10.57 percent during the week ended Nov 6 from 10.67 percent in the previous week.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) hiked both its short-term borrowing and lending rates by 25 basis points each Nov 2, tweaking its policy rates for the sixth time since the start of this calendar year to curb inflationary expectations.

Easing inflationary pressure may prompt the central bank to halt its monetary tightening drive and focus on industrial growth, which had fallen to 4.4 percent in September.

Following are the rise and fall in prices of some of the main commodities that form the sub-index for food articles over the past 52 weeks:

Cereals: 2.12 percent

Rice: 2.16 percent

Wheat: 0.99 percent

Pulses: (-) 4.71 percent

Vegetables: (-) 8.26 percent

Fruits: 20.29 percent

Milk: 17.68 percent

Potatoes: (-) 54.93 percent

Onions: 2.17 percent