Food inflation climbs to 14.55%
Zeenews Bureau
New Delhi: Led by rising pulse prices, food price index was up 14.55% for the week ended November 7, as per official figures released Thursday.
It’s not just pulses anymore; prices of other commodities like cereals, milk, vegetables, edible oil, tea, mutton, condiments and spices have also been skyrocketing and contributing to a sharp rise in food inflation – it was at 13.68% as per last figures announced on Oct 31.
The worst dry spell in nearly four decades and floods in parts of the country have hurt farm output and pushed up food prices.
Higher prices of staple vegetables such as onion and potato are also playing a key role in the pushing up of food inflation. On an annual basis, prices of potato have doubled during the one-year period ending October 31, 2009, while onions were expensive by 42.58 per cent.
High food prices also pushed up inflation of primary articles (items that are not processed) by 9.16 per cent.
Pulses were also dearer by 22.73 per cent.
The bad news is that the situation is expected to continue for some more time. Yesterday, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said the government might import rice, if the summer-sown crop output was inadequate.
However, according to Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahulwalia, "Food price inflation by the end of the current fiscal would be significantly lower than what it is right now." Food inflation was 13.39 per cent the previous week.