Inflation fell marginally for the second consecutive week to 6.12 per cent for the week ended January 24, notwithstanding the rising prices of some food and non-food articles and majority of manufactured products.
The wholesale price index inflation fell by 0.01 per cent from the previous week's level of 6.13 per cent due to fall in prices of vegetables and fruits, eggs, ghee and condiments and spices.
The point-to-point inflation, however, stood at 4.79 per cent. The downward movement in inflation since the last two reported weeks appears to be in line with predictions of the Reserve Bank of India and Centre, which had said general price level would stabilise around 4-4.5 per cent by the end of this fiscal.
The WPI, however, rose by 0.2 per cent to 178.6 points as compared to 178.2 points in the previous week with indices of primary articles and manufactured products moving up, even as fuel prices remained firm for the third consecutive week. The index was only 168.3 points in the year-ago period.
The government had to revise upwards the inflation to 5.49 per cent during the week ended November 29 as compared to the provisional level of 5.25 per cent.
The final WPI stood corrected at 176.7 points during the end of November as against the provisional figure of 176.3 points.
The index of primary articles' group rose by 0.2 per cent to 182.9 points due to the rising index of non-food articles, even as food articles' group index fell. The index was 174.9 points in the previous year period.
Food articles' group index declined by 0.2 per cent to 181.1 points due to cheaper arhar (three per cent), condiments and spices (two per cent) and eggs, fruits and vegetables (one per cent each).
Prices, however, rose for maize and bajra (three per cent each), poultry chicken (two per cent) and moong, jowar, barley and ragi (one per cent each).
The index of non-food articles' group shot up by near one per cent to 192.5 points owing to higher prices for raw cotton and sunflower (three per cent each), soyabean (two per cent) and raw rubber, tobacco, rape seed, mustard seed and niger seed (one per cent each), while there was two per cent decline in price of copra.
Fuel, power, light and lubricants' group index remained unchanged for the third week at 262.2 points and the index was at 242.8 points in the year-ago period.
The index of heavy-weighted manufactured products' group was up by 0.3 per cent to 158.4 points on account of costlier food products, chemicals, non-metallic mineral products, basic metals and transport equipment and it was 149.4 points in the previous year period.
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