Food inflation falls to 15.52% for the week that ended on January 8

Declining for the second week in a row, food inflation fell to 15.52% for the week ended January 8, although vegetable prices, specially that of onion, continued to remain high.

The decline in food inflation is mainly due to falling prices of pulses, wheat and potato, according to official data released today.

Food inflation, having touched 18.32 per cent for the week ended December 25, had declined to 16.91 per cent on January 1.

According to the data, prices of pulses declined by 14.92%, followed by wheat (6.11%), and potato (2.91%) on yearly basis.

Vegetable prices, however, continued remain firm going up by 65.39% over the same period last year. Onion prices nearly doubled during the year.

While fruits became expensive by 15.91%, prices of milk rose by 13.27% and egg, meat and fish by 12.94%.

Meanwhile, in the non-food category, the prices of fibres and minerals have climbed up by 46.77% and 16.70%, respectively, over the year-ago period.

The increase in prices of non-food items do not reflect hike in petrol prices announced by the oil marketing companies earlier in the month. The oil retailers on January 16 hiked the prices of petrol by about Rs2.5 a litre.

The headline inflation in December had risen to 8.43%, up from 7.48% in the previous month, mainly driven by costly food items.