Inflation pierced the 5 per cent mark for the first time this fiscal for the week ended May 22 mainly due to a whopping 9 per cent rise in prices of vegetables and a moderate hike in the prices of other commodities like wheat, eggs and sugar.
After remaining below 5 per cent for 11 weeks, the point-to-point wholesale price index inflation continued to rise for the second consecutive week by 0.35 per cent to 5.02 per cent, playing spoilsport for the small investors and India Inc.
The recent data shows that general price level was more or less heading towards the 6 per cent mark though oil prices in the domestic markets have not moved upwards, and the index was as high as 6.32 per cent in the year-ago period.
The Reserve Bank of India, in its lean season credit policy, had stressed that inflation was expected to be 5 per cent for this year.
The WPI rose by 0.2 per cent to 181.9 points with all the major commodity groups -- primary articles and fuels -- moving upwards. The index was at 173.2 points in the year-ago period.
The government finally revised inflation to 4.64 per cent for the week ended March 27 as compared to the provisional level of 4.47 per cent.
The final WPI stood corrected at 180.3 points during the last week of March as against the provisional mark of 180 points.
The index of primary articles' group shot up nearly 1 per cent to 186.6 points due to the substantial rise in the prices of food articles and a large surge in non-food articles' prices and the index was at 180.2 points in the previous year period.
Food articles' group index was up by 0.7 per cent to 185.2 points due to higher prices for vegetables (9 per cent), fish-marine (5 per cent), tea (3 per cent), arhar (2 per cent) and jowar, eggs, condiments and spices, barley and wheat (1 per cent each).
Prices, however, dipped in the case of fish-inland (5 per cent), gram and maize (2 per cent each) and urad (1 per cent).
The index of non-food articles' group shot up by 1.4 per cent to 193.1 points since prices rose for soyabean (19 per cent), niger seed (3 per cent) and sunflower and raw cotton (1 per cent each).
But prices declined for fodder (9 per cent), cotton seed (2 per cent), castor seed and gingelly seed (1 per cent each).
Fuel, power, light and lubricants' group index was up by 0.3 per cent to 264.9 points as prices rose for lubricants (13 per cent), naphtha (4 per cent) and furnace oil (1 per cent). The index was at 246.4 points in the year-ago period.
The index of heavy-weighted manufactured products' group fell by 0.1 per cent to 161.7 points due to lower prices for food products, even as textiles, chemicals, basic metals and machinery became costlier. The index was at 154.4 points in the previous year period.
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