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NEW DELHI, JULY 20: Inflation remained unchanged at 4.27 per cent during the week ended July 7, as steep fall in prices of some essential items like fruits neutralized the impact of other articles becoming dearer, easing pressure on the RBI to further tighten monetary policy in July 31 review.
Inflation stood at 4.83 per cent during the corresponding week of last year.
Weekly data on wholesale prices-based inflation would come one more time before the Reserve Bank releases its quarterly review of monetary policy.
Analysts feel the central bank is unlikely to further tighten money supply as inflation is within expectations. RBI has targeted inflation to remain close to five per cent this fiscal and 4-4.5 per cent in the medium term.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram had also said on Thursday that high crude oil and food prices did not necessarily mean that monetary policy would be tightened further.
"We will keep a watch on food and commodity prices and monetary policy will be kept tight. It does not mean that monetary policy would be tighter," he was quoted as saying in an interview.
Vegetable prices continued to rise after rains across the country disrupted their supply. Vegetables became costlier by 4.4 per cent this time.
However, fruits more than moderated the effect of vegetable prices as their prices fell steeply by over 16 per cent. |