The Reserve Bank of India's fears came true as inflation rose for the seventh consecutive week by 0.12 per cent to reach 31-week high of 5.75 per cent for the week ended December 27, mainly due to an all round hike in the prices of primary articles, fuels and manufactured items.
The wholesale price index inflation stood at 5.63 per cent in the previous week; it was only 3.47 per cent in the year-ago period. The average general price level stood at 5.23 per cent during the third quarter of this year.
Attributing the surge in domestic price level during the last two months to rise in global prices of commodities and uncertainty in oil prices, RBI Governor Y V Redddy had feared that benign inflation would be difficult to maintain.
The WPI was up 0.1 per cent to 176.7 points even as prices of vegetables, fruits and ragi declined; the index was 167.1 points in the previous year period.
The central government had to revise upwards the point-to-point inflation to 5.55 per cent for the week ended November 1 as compared to the reported provisional level of 5.01 per cent, while the final WPI stood corrected at 177 points as against provisional figure of 176.1 points.
The index of primary articles' group rose 0.1 per cent to 179.9 points even as food articles became cheaper; the non-food articles became costlier. The index was 173.7 points during the year-ago period.
Food articles' group index dipped 0.2 per cent to 179.6 points due to two per cent fall in prices of fruits and vegetables and one per cent in ragi.
However, prices rose for arhar and bajra (four per cent each), urad (three per cent) and masur, mutton, jowar, wheat and maize (one per cent each).
The index of non-food articles' group rose substantially by 0.7 per cent to 185.5 points due to higher prices for copra (11 per cent), safflower (nine per cent), raw silk, raw rubber and raw cotton (two per cent each) and gingelly seed and soyabean (one per cent each).
But prices fell for castor seed and linseed (two per cent each) and niger seed and sunflower (one per cent each).
Fuel, power, light and lubricants' group index rose 0.4 per cent to 258.4 points due to costlier furnace oil (nine per cent), light diesel oil (eight per cent) and bitumen (four per cent); the index was only 238.8 points in the year-ago period.
The index of heavy-weighted manufactured products' group was up marginally by 0.1 per cent to 157.4 due to increased prices for food products, textiles, chemicals and non-metallic mineral products. The index was 148.8 points in the previous year period.