Beating the expectations of the Reserve Bank of India and the government, inflation rose by 0.11 per cent to 5.91 per cent for the week ended February 7 mainly due to costlier food products, textiles and fuels used as inputs for manufacturing.
The point-to-point Wholesale Price Index inflation rose from 5.8 per cent in the previous week, notwithstanding the sharp fall in the prices of vegetables, and it was 5.35 per cent in the year-ago period.
Though 'Avian Flu' had not entered the Indian shores, the WPI data captured the devastating impact of it on the poultry sector with prices falling drastically for chicken and eggs due to a fall in demand, while mutton became costlier.
The WPI rose by 0.2 per cent to 179.2 points during the first week of this month basically due to rising prices of rice and manufactured products, while Primary Articles became cheaper. The index was 169.2 points in the previous year period.
Government had to revise upwards the inflation to 5.8 per cent for the week ended December 13 against the provisional level of 5.57 per cent.
The final WPI stood corrected at 176.8 points during the second week of December compared to the provisional figure of 176.4 points.