After moderating for a week, the country?s food inflation has again shown an upward trend during the week ended May 22.
According to data released by the commerce & industry ministry, food inflation rose to 16.55% for the week ended May 22, mainly because of higher prices of pulses, milk and fruit. With this, food inflation has remained above 16% for the sixth consecutive week. Food inflation stood at 16.23% in the previous week.
According to latest data, potatoes and onions became cheaper by 34.09% and 11.55%, respectively. Prices of pulses, on the other hand, increased by 30.84%, that of milk by 21.12%, fruit by 13.7% and vegetables by 1.34%
Among other food items, rice and wheat turned costlier by 7.30% and 3.07%, respectively.
Although food inflation has been rising, analysts feel that inflation would come down in the next few months after the onset of the monsoon.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Planning Commission member Abhijit Sen have already expressed confidence that food inflation would come down because of a good rabi harvest and will stand at single digit by October. According to an FE analysis, food prices in major cities across the country during the week which ended on Monday, remained stable.
However, prices of pulses, mainly tur dal, has increased marginally in a few cities because of low stocks with traders and rise in global prices.
The analysis showed that rice prices went up in Ahmedabad and Mumbai while in the rest of the country, they remained unchanged. Wheat prices went up in Mumbai and Chennai during the week while Tur dal became costlier in Delhi, Thiruvananthapuram and Hyderabad.
While sugar prices declined in Mumbai and Thiruvananthapuram and went up marginally in Bangalore, potato prices declined in Delhi and remained stable in the other major cities which FE tracked. Mustard oil prices declined in Chennai and remained unchanged in the rest of the country.