Inflation’s downward slide continued today as the figures for the week ended October 11 registered a 40 basis points decline over the previous week, to settle at 11.07 per cent. The annual rate of inflation was 11.44 per cent in the previous week and the 3.07 per cent over the corresponding week last year. This is the ninth week running since inflation started showing signs of moderation as a result of weakening global crude oil and commodity prices. Reacting to the data released today, finance minister P Chidambaram said the moderation in crude oil and commodity prices will have a beneficial effect on headline inflation. The department of economic affairs (DEA) said the week-on-week inflation had fallen in all the three major groups of commodities and that the prices of a majority of the commodities had either declined or remained unchanged as against the previous week. DEA secretary Ashok Chawla said inflation would continue to slide and should be between 9.5-10 per cent by the end of December. Inflation in the 3 essential commodities, as defined by the DEA, also declined marginally to 7.81 per cent from 7.88 per cent in the previous week. The bulk of the decline was contributed by the manufactured goods and primary articles group of commodities, the index for which declined by 0.2 per cent and 0.8 per cent, respectively. The overall wholesale price index stood 238.8, 0.3 per cent less than the previous week’s figure of 239.6.
