Food inflation soars, unacceptable says FM

Food inflation touched a two-and-half-month high of 9.13 per cent in the week ended June 11 on the back of costlier fruits, milk, onions and protein-based items.

Food inflation, as measured by the Wholesale Price Index (WPI), stood at 8.96 per cent during the previous week. It was almost 23 per cent during the second week of June, 2010.

Attributing the latest jump in food inflation mainly to rising prices of protein-based items, Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday said the high inflationary regime was not acceptable and efforts would be made to bring it down.

"... We are in region of high inflationary regime, which is not acceptable. It will have to be brought down," Mukherjee said while commenting on food inflation, which touched two-and-half-month high of 9.13 per cent for the week ended June 11.

Food inflation has crossed the 9 per cent mark after a gap of one week. The latest food inflation numbers are the highest since the week ended March 26, 2011, when the rate of price rise of food items touched 9.18 per cent.

As per data released by the government on Thursday, fruits became dearer by 28.66 per cent year-on-year, while milk grew 15.30 per cent more expensive.

During the week under review, prices of onions went up by 11.89 per cent and eggs, meat and fish by 10.56 per cent on an annual basis.

Cereals were also up 4.32 per cent and potatoes became dearer by 0.71 per cent. However, prices of pulses, wheat and vegetables went down during the week. While pulses became 10.34 per cent cheaper, wheat was down 1 per cent and vegetables 9.27 per cent.

Overall, primary articles reported inflation of 12.62 per cent during the period under review, down from 12.86 per cent in the previous week. Primary articles have a share of 20 per cent in the WPI.

The latest surge in food inflation comes close on the heels of the India Meteorological Department's (IMD) forecast that monsoon rains are expected to be below normal at 95 per cent of the Long Period Average (LPA), with margin for error of plus or minus 4 per cent.