Inflation dips to 6.5%

Inflation fell by 0.23 per cent to a 23-week low of 6.5 per cent for the fourth consecutive week ended December 18, mainly due to cheaper food items, edibles oils and manufactured products.

The point-to-point wholesale price index inflation fell from 6.73 per cent in the previous week, even as fuel prices remained unchanged. It was 5.92 per cent in the year-ago period.

Finance minister P Chidambaram had recently said the government had used several measures to moderate inflation from time to time and the real issue was that global crude prices should fall below $40 a barrel, which "somehow was not happening."

During the week under review, international oil prices had remained over $44 a barrel, even as worries on tight heating oil inventories in the US kept markets nervous.

The WPI declined by 0.1 per cent to 188.5 points with the indices of primary articles and manufactured products going down. It was 177 points in the year-ago period.

The government revised upwards inflation to 7.44 per cent for the week ended October 23 as compared to the provisional level of 7.38 per cent, while the WPI stood corrected at 189.2 points as against the provisional figure of 189.1 points.

The index of primary articles' group fell marginally by 0.1 per cent to 185.8 points due to cheaper food items. The index was 180.7 points in the previous year period.

Food articles' group index fell by 0.2 per cent to 185 points on account of lower prices of poultry chicken (seven per cent), vegetables and fruits, urad, arhar, masur and gram (one per cent each), even as eggs became costlier by two per cent.

The index for non-food articles' group rose by 0.2 per cent to 181.1 points due to higher prices of raw silk (five per cent), raw jute (two per cent) and raw cotton, raw tobacco, sugarcane, niger sees and mesta (one per cent each). However, there was a two per cent decline in the prices of raw rubber and castor seed.

Fuel, power, light and lubricants' group index remained unchanged at the previous week's level of 288.8 points. It was 258.4 points in the previous year period.

The index of heavy-weighted manufactured products' group was down marginally by 0.2 per cent to 167 points owing to cheaper food products and textiles, while prices rose in the case of chemicals, non-metallic mineral products and basic metals. The index was 157.6 points in the year-ago period.