The wholesale price index rate fell sharply to 8.98 per cent for the week ended November 1 on account of declining prices of fuel and manufactured goods.

The rate came down by 1.74 percentage points from 10.72 per cent in the previous week.

The rate was 3.35 per cent a year ago.

The prices of commodities which have declined during the week include fuel items like naphtha, jet fuel, furnace oil and light diesel oil.

Naphtha prices fell sharply by 33 per cent, followed by jet fuel, which fell by 18 per cent, and furnace oil, which declined by 13 per cent.

Light diesel oil prices declined by 6 per cent.

The sharp decline in prices that are not administered by the government follows the drop in crude prices in the international market, which slipped from a high of $147 a barrel in July to less than USD 60 a barrel currently.

Apart from fuel items, prices of manufactured products also showed a decline.

The Manufactured Products Index, which has a weight of around 64 per cent, declined by 0.7 per cent mainly due to lower prices of imported edible oil, which declined by 8 per cent, and unrefined oil, which fell by one per cent.

Prices of iron and steel fell by 7 per cent while cement prices remained unchanged.

Fruit and vegetable prices also went down marginally by 0.1 per cent, tea prices by 2 per cent, spices prices by one per cent.

The inflation rate for the week ended September 9 was revised upwards to 12.42 per cent from the provisional
estimates of 12.14 per cent.      

• Inflation, the silent killer