Food inflation jumps to 17.05%

Food inflation soared to 17.05% for the week that ended on January 22, rising for the second straight week, on the back of costlier vegetables, fruits and milk.

Food inflation rose by 1.48 percentage points from 15.57% in the previous week. The food inflation last year had stood at 20.56%.

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.

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, data released by the government showed.

In the non-food items, fuel inflation rose by 0.66% during the week after the oil marketing companies raised petrol prices by about Rs2.50 a litre.

"Fuel and Power" category showed an increase of 11.61% year-on-year.

The uptick in latest food inflation figure is likely to put further pressure on the government grappling with expensive food commodities and a slowing industrial growth that dipped to the 18-month low of 2.7% for November.

The overall inflation for December rose to 8.43%, from 7.48% in the previous month.

The RBI has projected the headline inflation to be at 7% by March end.