New Delhi - India's inflation rate rose to a three-and-a-half-year high of 7.57 per cent, primarily because of higher prices of food and some manufactured products, officials said Friday.

The increase in wholesale price-based inflation was recorded for the week ending April 19 from the same period a year earlier. It was larger than the 7.33 per cent from the week that ended April 12 and was the highest rate since November 2, 2004, when prices rose 7.76 per cent, government data showed.

The wholesale price index, covering a larger number of products, is usually published weekly and is more closely watched than the consumer price index, which is published monthly.

During the reporting week, prices of tea shot up 17 per cent as milk, rice and vegetables also became more expensive, the PTI news agency reported. In the manufactured products category, prices of cast iron pipes jumped by 51 per cent, pig iron by 8 per cent and steel sheets by 2 per cent.

The annual rate of inflation has been rising despite fiscal and monetary measures taken by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, which is worried about the political impact of rising inflation as the country faces general elections next year.

The UPA, which came to power in 2004 on the support of the poor and farmers has now appealed to Indian industry to help the government in fighting inflation and called on the corporate sector to tighten its belt and help check price increases.

"A measure of sobriety in corporate lifestyles and compensation can also help cut costs and maintain the price level," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said. "This is what I mean by the tightening of belts. It helps your firms - it helps the consumer."

The government has already banned the export of commodities like rice and lowered tariffs on some raw materials.

Meanwhile, the UPA's left-wing partners and the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party have criticized the government for rising inflation and have planned protests and rallies over the coming weeks. (dpa)