Staff Reporter | 11 Jul, 2008
Soaring inflation rate zoomed further to 11.89 percent for the week ended June 28, against 11.68 percent the week before.

The sky rocketing annual inflation rate, which was only 4.42 percent on June 30 last year, is set to further compound problems for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government, currently in a bind over the India-US nuclear deal.

The latest inflation data based on wholesale price index (WPI) showed an increase of 0.9 percent in the index of primary articles.

The WPI index for food articles comprising fruits vegetables increased 0.5 percent, while the index for non-food articles like raw cotton and ground seeds rose 1.8 percent.

The price index for fuel, power, light and lubricants, however, remained unchanged. The WPI index for manufactured products rose 0.4 percent.

The WPI figure released Friday by the commerce and industry ministry showed the price index for textile products registered the highest increase by 2.5 percent while that of chemicals and chemical products rose 1.2 percent.

Among the prominent items with a declining WPI for the week under consideration were steel sheets, plates and strip whose price went down by 6 percent.

The final WPI for all commodities for the week ended May 3 stood at 230.5 and the annual rate of inflation based on final index, calculated on point-to-point basis, stood at 8.73 percent.