Food inflation moved up to 11.49 per cent for the week ended February 12 as compared with 11.05 per cent for the previous week even as prices of certain items fell marginally. Despite the increase,Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said while inflation has been a concern for the last 18 months,it will come down to 7 per cent by the end of the current fiscal. According to the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) data released today,the index of food articles group declined by 0.3 per cent due to lower prices of fruits and vegetables,which fell by 5 per cent; urad,fish-marine and condiments and spices by 2 per cent each; and bajra,moong and maize by 1 per cent. However,price of milk rose by 5 per cent,jowar and mutton by 2 per cent each and barley and ragi by 1 per cent each. The food inflation had dropped to 11.05 per cent in the first week of February from 13.07 in the previous week,which was also a decline from the numbers for week ended January 22. Singh in the Lok Sabha said: I will be the first one to admit that inflation in the last 18 months has become a problem. There were reasons beyond our control. First of all,there was the drought of 2009 and there were natural calamities which affected the production of important products such as vegetables and onions. However,Singh said the government will expand frontiers of our ability to control inflation through National Food Security Bill. Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh also said that the food inflation will come down to single digit by March end. On the rising prices of cereals,Singh said India has sufficient accumulated stock of the commodity. Inflation in cereals was 2.07 per cent for the week ended February 12. The index for non-food articles group rose by 3.2 per cent due to higher prices of raw cotton,castor seed,copra,gaur seed among others. The index for fuel and power group rose by 0.2 per cent due to higher prices of furnace oil and naphtha. Fuel prices are expected to rise further due to hardening crude prices as a result of uncertain political situation in the Middle-East. Crude oil price has already touched a two-year high of $99.10 per barrel at the New York Mercantile Exchange.
