The demon of inflation has again hardened its hold on the Indian economy. For the week ending March 22, the food inflation touched 16.55 per cent.

The rise happened because of the increase in the prices of pulses, fruits and vegetables.

The inflation increased by 0.32 percentage points over the previous week. At that time, the figure was at 16.23 per cent.

As per the data available, the upward stickiness of the prices happened because of at least 7 per cent price rise in fish marine along with 5 per cent upwards in poultry items and 2 and 1 per cent increase in the prices of barley and fruits and vegetable, respectively.

On the other hand, the price of items like coffee and wheat went down. While coffee price went down by 5 per cent the same for wheat went down by 1 per cent. Castor seeds, cotton and raw rubber prices also went down.

But if one considers the provisional data then for the month of April the inflation stood at 9.59 per cent that is slightly lower than the 9.90 per cent figure of March.