Costlier vegetables push food inflation to 17.05 pc

NEW DELHI - Food inflation soared to 17.05 per cent for the week ended January 22, rising for the second straight week, on the back of costlier vegetables, fruits and milk.

Food inflation rose by 1.48 percentage points from 15.57 per cent in the previous week. The food inflation last year had stood at 20.56 per cent.

On an annual basis, onion prices rose by 130.41 per cent in the third week of January, although they have moderated considerably in the recent days.India News

Vegetables as a whole have became dearer by 77.05 per cent on an annual basis as potato prices rose by 6.22 per cent.

Fruits and milk became costlier by 15.47 per cent and 11.41 per cent on a year on year basis respectively, data released by the government showed.

In the non-food items, fuel inflation rose by 0.66 per cent during the week after the oil marketing companies raised petrol prices by about Rs 2.50 a litre.

"Fuel and Power" category showed an increase of 11.61 per cent year-on-year.

The uptick in latest food inflation figure is likely to put further pressure on the government grappling with expensive food commodities and a slowing industrial growth that dipped to the 18-month low of 2.7 per cent for November.

The overall inflation for December rose to 8.43 per cent, from 7.48 per cent in the previous month.

The RBI has projected the headline inflation to be at 7 per cent by March end.National headlines