This is the highest rate of inflation based on wholesale price index (WPI) recorded since September 23, 1995, when it touched 9.01 per cent.

During the week under reference, inflation rose by 0.34 percentage points to 8.85 per cent (provisional) from 8.51 per cent (P) In the previous week.Compared to this, inflation was at a low of 3.70 per cent during the corresponding week of last year.

The increase in inflation is mainly on account of primary food articles, especially essential commodities. Prices of essential commodities have spurted in the last few months due to lower production of agricultural commodities.

In the last few months, commodities like onion, potato, pulses and edible oils have witnessed an unprecedented rise in prices.

However, rise in prices of items like onion and potato does not get properly reflected in WPIas these commodities carry only very small weightage in the all commodities basket.

The rise in prices of essential commodities was more reflected in inflation based on consumer price index for industrial workers (CPI-IW), which shot up from 15 per cent in August to 16.3 per cent in September compared to just 8.2 per cent for the same month on WPI-based estimates.

During the present week, the index (base:1981-82=100)for `all commodities' rose by 0.2 per cent to 360.2 (P) From 359.4 (P) in the previous week.

Meanwhile, the rate of inflation based on the final index for the week ended September 12 stood at 8.4 per cent against the provisionally estimated 8.1 per cent.

The latest final index for all commodities stood at 356.5 compared to the provisional figure of 355.8.

During the present week, prices of barley (5 per cent), raw rubber (11 per cent), raw silk (5 per cent), suji (5 per cent), benzene (14 per cent) and titanium dioxide (8 per cent) moved up substantially, while prices of groundnut oil (7per cent and rice bran (5 per cent) eased.

Among three major groups in WPI, index for `primary articles' rose and `manufactured products' declined, while that of `fuel, power, light and lubricants' remained unchanged for the 14th week at 379.9 points. Primary articles index rose by 0.7 per cent to 398.1 from 395.4 in the previous week.