In spite of promises from the administration that food costs would shortly start reducing, the country's annual food inflation based on wholesale prices again climbed up to 17.97% for the week ended Feb 6.

According to official information released by the commerce and industry ministry today, the twelve-monthly increase in the index for food articles stood at 17.94% for the previous week.

Prices of essential items continued to ascend, with vegetables costlier by 19.56%, potatoes by 38.02%, pulses by 38.04% and fruits by 10.39% over the twelve monthly period.

The limited facts on wholesale price index also indicated a sharp increase in the index for primary articles by 16.23%, whereas that for fuels was up 9.89%.

The country's yearly inflation rate, based on the wholesale prices index, had climbed to 8.56% during the last month from 7.31% during the previous month, mainly because of rising food prices.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday stated that the steps taken by the administration to control inflationary figures will take some time to have their effect and that the country would notice a reasonable rate of inflation by the next two months. (With Input from Agencies)