Food Inflation Declines Further To 9.53%

Food Inflation Declines Further To 9.53%For the week ended July 24, the food price index declined further to 9.53% as against 9.67% registered in the last week.

This is the second successive week that the food inflation has stayed in single digits, giving a much required respite to the UPA administration that has been under attack from all quarters because of rising costs of vital goods and commodities.

The yearly rate of inflation, calculated on point to point basis, was 14.36% for the week ended July 24 as against 14.50% for the previous week and 7.89% in the same period of 2009.

The index for 'Primary Articles' fell 0.2%. The 'Food Articles' index dropped 0.2% owing to lower rates of fruits & veggies and fish-marine.

But, the prices of rice and condiments & spices, maize, jowar, gram and urad went up.

The index for 'Non-Food Articles' group increased by 0.1% owing to higher costs of castor seed, sunflower and rape & mustard seed, copra and raw silk.

But, the costs of raw rubber declined 1%.

The index for 'Minerals' group slumped 1.3% because of lower prices of magnesite, steatite and iron ore.

The index for 'Fuel, Light and Lubricants' group slumped marginally because of lower price of aviation turbine fuel. (With Inputs from Agencies)