Friday, July 25, 2008

Inflation dips to 11.89% STATEMENT OF FINANCE MINISTRY ON INFLATION

The following is the text of the statement on inflation issued by the Ministry of Finance, here today:

Inflation, on a week-on-week basis, has continued to remain stable. The WPI moved up only marginally from 238.7 in the week ending July 5, 2008 to 239.0 in the week ending July 12, 2008; the rate of inflation for the week ending July 12, 2008 stands at 11.89 per cent, marginally lower than the rate of 11.91 per cent reported last week. 

In the ‘primary articles’ group, the annual point-to-point inflation increased to 10.15 per cent, as compared to 9.92 per cent reported last week, but lower than 10.84 per cent reported for the week ending June 28, 2008. Out of a total of 98 articles, 10 articles have shown a decline in prices as compared to July 5, 2008. These include fish-marine, chillies-dry, tea, potatoes, oranges, garlic, cardamom, black pepper, maize and cummin. Another 54 articles have shown no increase in prices. 

Prices of all the 19 articles in commodity group ‘fuel and power’ have not shown any increase. 

In the case of ‘manufactured products’, out of a total 318 commodities, a large number, 299 in all, have shown no increase in prices over the last week. In the case of 9 commodities there is a decline in prices. These commodities include rice bran oil, cottonseed oil, groundnut oil, imported edible oil, gur, texturised yarn, hessian bags and cloth and liquid vitamins. Only 10 products, particularly lead and zinc ingots, groundnut cake, tyre cord fabrics and rubber chemicals witnessed an increase in prices 

The annual inflation rate for the group of 30 essential commodities continues to be range-bound. For the week ending July 12, 2008 it stands at 5.82 per cent. Prices of essential commodities which include food grains, pulses, edible oils, vegetables, dairy products and some other commodities including kerosene, soap and safety matches have more or less stabilized.

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