Inflation at 5% in 2004-05

Reflecting the "measured" steps taken by the Centre and the Reserve Bank to check prices, fiscal 2004-05 ended with inflation at 5.05 per cent for the week ended March 26 despite costlier food articles, including vegetables.

The Wholesale Price Index inflation fell by 0.06 per cent to 5.05 per cent from the previous week's level of 5.11 per cent due to a fall in prices of edible oils and non-food products.

The point-to-point inflation was at 4.64 per cent in the previous year period. It stood at 4.4 per cent in the beginning of 2004-05.

The Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Monday said in Mumbai that the government was confident about managing inflationary pressures despite rising crude oil prices.

WPI, meanwhile, rose by 0.20 per cent to 189.4 points with indices of primary articles and heavy-weighted manufactured products going up. It was 180.3 a year-ago.

The government revised downwards inflation to 5.14 per cent for the week ended January 29 as against the provisional estimate of 5.25 per cent.