Inflation in March rose to a three-month high of 5.7% mainly on a spurt in the prices of food items such as potatoes, onions and fruits while prices of sugar, pulses, cereals, cement and minerals eased
Snapping its declining trend, inflation in March rose to a three-month high of 5.7% mainly on a spurt in the prices of food items such as potatoes, onions and fruits.
Inflation in food items, based on the wholesale price index (WPI), shot up by 9.9% in March as against 8.12% in the previous month.
Overall WPI inflation, which has been on the decline since December, dropped to a nine-month low of 4.68% in February.
According to the data released by the government on Tuesday, January inflation number has been revised upwards to 5.17% as against the earlier estimate of 5.05%.
In March, the price rise in potato was 27.83% as against 8.36% in the previous month. Inflation in onion was 1.92% in the last month of 2013-14 fiscal compared to a contraction in the price of the kitchen staple in the previous month.
Overall inflation in the vegetable segment was 8.57% as compared to about 4% in February. Fruits were costlier by 16.15% in March compared to 9.92%.
The government further said the build-up of the inflation rate in the 2013-14 financial year was 5.70% compared to a build-up rate of 5.65% in the earlier fiscal.
The data further revealed that prices of sugar, pulses, cereals, cement and minerals eased in March compared to the previous month.
Inflation in the fuel and power category (LPG, petrol and diesel) rose to 11.22% versus 8.75% in February.
Later in the day, the Government is also scheduled to release data for retail inflation calculated on the consumer price index (CPI).
In the monetary policy review earlier this month, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had retained the key interest rate expecting a rise in inflationary expectations.
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