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The rise and fall of the infation index

Inflation could touch 13 per cent in the near future, but is expected to cool down to 8-9 per cent by March 2009. The rate of inflation accelerated to 12.44 per cent in the week ended August 2, up from 12.01 per cent in the previous week. This is the provisional rate. There has been significant variance between the provisional and the actual rates in the recent past. Just to sight an example, the annual rate of inflation for the week ended June 7 was revised upwards to 11.66 per cent from the earlier provisional figure of 11.05 per cent.

The rise occurred largely as a result of a spike in prices of primary articles and oil products. The index for food articles rose by 0.6 per cent while that for non-food articles rose by 0.2 per cent. This rise was primarily because of a surge in the prices of maize, certain lentils, fruits and vegetables, marine fish, rubber, tobacco, linseed and cottonseed. The index for the fuel and power group of commodities went up by 0.9 per cent owing largely to higher prices of light diesel oil, bitumen and furnace oil and aviation turbine fuel.

Interestingly, the index for manufacturing products has gone down by 0.05. So, let us see how things shape up in India.

The information is taken from various sources but by and large the numbers seem to match and hence I thought I should share it you all the readers.

posted by Mahendra @ 8:11 AM