Inflation eases to 7.24% in November

Inflation declined to 7.24 per cent in November from 9.46 per cent in the same month a year ago although prices of food items like potato, wheat, cereals, rice, pulses, edible oil and sugar went up during the period. Inflation, as measured by the Wholesale Price Index (WPI), stood at 7.45 per cent in the previous month. Food inflation, as a category, rose to 8.5 per cent during the month, from 8.32 per cent a year ago. Food articles have 14.3 per cent share in the WPI basket. Vegetables prices declined by 1.19 per cent in November this year as compared to surge of 10.68 per cent in same month a year ago. Potato and onion prices, however, shot up by 72.20 per cent and 17 per cent respectively year on year in November this year as compared to a decline of 9.31 per cent and 35.15 per cent in the same period last year. Wheat turned expensive by 23.19 per cent in November from a decline of 4.86 per cent in the same month a year ago. Cereals became dearer by 15.85 per cent from a rise of 2.15 per cent in the same month last year. Pulses and eggs, meat and fish became costlier by 19.10 per cent and 14.19 per cent in November. These food items also saw a surge in prices by 14.96 per cent and 11.40 per cent in November last year. For the fuel and power category, inflation moderated to 10.02 per cent during the month from 15.48 per cent in November 2011. However, diesel inflation increased by 14.60 per cent last month. In the manufactured items category, prices of cotton textiles, man-made textile, iron and steel paper and paper products, rubber and plastic products rose relatively at a lower pace compared to the same month of the previous year. The rate of price rise in the manufactured products was 5.41 per cent in November, as against 8.17 per cent in the corresponding month of last year. Inflation for September was revised upwards to 8.07 per cent from 7.81 per cent as per provisional estimates.