Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 150
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 151
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Warning (512): Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853 [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 148]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 181]
LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Government 'disturbed' as food inflation soars past 10%

Government 'disturbed' as food inflation soars past 10%

Share this article Share this article
published Published on Sep 2, 2011   modified Modified on Sep 2, 2011

-The Economic Times

 

Food inflation climbed into double digits after a fivemonth gap, prompting finance minister Pranab Mukherjee to term the trend "disturbing".

The wholesale index for food articles rose 10.1% for the week to August 18 from a year earlier on account of a sharp increase in prices of vegetables and cereals, data released on Thursday showed. The index was at 9.8% in the previous week. "This is really disturbing," Mukherjee said after the data was released. Food articles have a 14.3% weight in the wholesale price index, or WPI.

Economists said the recent spurt will reflect in WPI, which had moderated to 9.22% in July from 9.44% in June. The acceleration in food inflation was mainly because of an 11.6% rise in vegetable prices during the week. Among the vegetables, prices of onions surged the most, by 12.3%.

But economists called the uptick in food inflation a "seasonal spurt" and said it was not a cause for concern. They said this was normal at this time of the year when the summer crop goes out of the market and the winter crop is yet to arrive.

"Vegetable prices tend to remain under pressure towards the end of the season," said Madan Sabnavis, chief economist with ratings agency CARE. Sunil Sinha, head of research and senior economist at Crisil, said the recent diesel price hike was also to be blamed for a spurt in food inflation.

"Food inflation has increased in part due to seasonal factors and partly due to the second round effects of the diesel price increase," he said. The year-on-year rise in vegetable prices was at 15.8%, but for onions a massive 57%. The egg, meat & fish basket also saw an increase of 1.81% during the week, while inflation in these items stood at 1.62%.

C Rangarajan, chairman of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council, said he expects food inflation to drop in the coming weeks.

"We are almost towards the end of the monsoon and all indications are that the agricultural production will be good during this year," he said. "One thing that can be done is to push more food grain into the system. We have a fairly large stock of food grain in the public distribution system."

Inflation in primary articles rose to 12.9% from 12.4% in the previous week, while that in the fuel & power group came down to 12.6% from 13.1%.

The Reserve bank of India has raised key policy rates 11 times by a cumulative 325 basis points since March last year to combat inflation. The central bank is widely expected to go in for another hike in its next monetary policy meeting on September 16.

The Economic Times, 2 September, 2011, http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/indicators/government-disturbed-as-food-inflation-soars-past-10/articleshow/9829766.cms


Related Articles

 

Write Comments

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

Video Archives

Archives

share on Facebook
Twitter
RSS
Feedback
Read Later

Contact Form

Please enter security code
      Close