Regardless of the government's best attempts, the country's annual food inflation climbed to 16.55% for the week ended May 22, due to lofty prices of pulses, milk and fruits.

During the previous week, the food inflation stood at 16.23%.

Facts on the wholesale price index (WPI) released by the commerce and industry ministry disclosed that food index surged by 0.5% and non-food index shot up 0.41% during the week under review.

The report also said that fuel rates surged 14.14% during the week as compared to 12.08% in the week before.

The index of primary articles remained up by 16.89% as against 15.9% during the previous week.

The overall annual rate of inflation in April was 9.59%.

With food inflationary numbers not declining and in fact spreading out to non-food articles, some policy action by the central bank in its quarterly review can be projected in July.

The four-month annual rains, important for agriculture output, hit India's southern coast on Monday as projected. In 2009, the driest time during the last 37 years hurt crops and drove food rates up.

PM Dr. Manmohan Singh, who projects inflation to ease to 5-6% by Dec 2010, said that the price situation at this time was a big trouble.

He added that there is a need to take some strong action.

RBI Governor Duvvuri Subbarao stated that inflation remained higher than its comfort level.

The central banking institution has increased rates twice, by a total of 50 basis points, since mid-March to curb inflation and is expected to deliver another rate hike of 25 basis points when it reviews its policy on July 27.

Indranil Pan, chief economist at Kotak Mahindra Bank in Mumbai, stated, "The RBI will continue to normalise rates. But there is little reason why the RBI should be aggressive or hesitant in raising rates. Adjustments in rates will be incremental as there is lot of uncertainty." (With Inputs from Agencies)