Food inflation falls to 17.58%

Food inflation fell to 17.58% for the week ended February 13 as prices of pulses and vegetables eased during the week.

The wholesale price-based inflation fell after rising for four consecutive weeks. Inflation was at 17.97 per cent in the previous week.

While prices of pulses fell by one per cent over the week, vegetables became cheaper by 5.7 per cent. Potato prices were up 30.40 per cent year-on-year during the week against an annual rise of 57.67 per cent in the week ending February 6.

Onion prices were up 12.46 per cent against an annual inflation of 29.92 per cent in the previous week.

The inflation for primary articles, which include food and non-food items in raw form, fell to 15.84 per cent during the week from 16.23 per cent a week earlier.

The price index for food articles, on weekly basis, moved down 0.45 per cent on account of lower prices of tea (3 per cent), masur, gram and fruits and vegetables (2 per cent each) and arhar, moong and barley (1 per cent each).

The wholesale price-based overall inflation had risen to 8.56 per cent in January, shooting past the RBI's forecast of 8.50 per cent for this fiscal end.

The Economic Survey released on Thursday warned that the overall prices would go up further in months to come and partially blamed poor food management policies for the double-digit food inflation.