The government, already under pressure due to high international crude oil prices, received another jolt on Thursday when the country?s food inflation rose again for the second week in a row to the much discomfort to the finance minister Pranab Mukherjee just weeks before presentation of the Budget.
According to data released on Thursday by ministry of commerce and industry, food inflation rose to 17.05% for the week ended on January 22. Food inflation rose by 1.48 percentage points from 15.57% in the previous week.
The rise in food inflation is being attributed to costlier vegetables, fruit and milk. “Price rise always, particularly, the commodity price and food items are matter of grave concern” Mukherjee said. He also stated that efforts are being made both from the demand and supply side to moderate it.
On an annual basis, onion prices rose by 130.41% in the third week of January, although they have moderated considerably in the recent days. The retail prices of onion in Delhi has fallen from Rs 62 per kg prevailing during the last week of December has declined to Rs 25 a kg on Thursday due to rise in arrival of late kharif crop into the market. ?Easing of onion prices, should be more than compensated by firm vegetable prices, which have a weightage of 1.74, as against Onion’s weightage of 0.18 in the index,? Anand James, chief Analyst, Geojit Comtrade told FE.
Vegetables as a whole have became dearer by 77.05% on an annual basis as potato prices rose by 6.22%. Fruits and milk became costlier by 15.47% and 11.41% on a year on year basis respectively, the government statement said.