Food inflation rises to 8.74% for April 9

Reversing a three-week declining trend, food inflation shot up to 8.74% for the week ended April 9 from 8.28% in the previous week on account of expensive fruits, protein-based items and onions, according to the official data released today.

The surge from the last week, which was incidentally the lowest in a-year-and-half, is likely to put more pressure on the government looking bewildered after the overall inflation for March overshot its forecast of 8%. Headline inflation last month was recorded at 8.98%.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said persistent inflation, especially in the food sector, had become a cause for concern.

While calling for increasing productivity and production in the agriculture sector, he said, "The needs of a growing and increasingly more prosperous population can only be met by enhanced production of a diversified basket of agricultural products."

Singh's grave concern stems from what appears to be an embedded spike in prices of fruits and protein-based items including egg, meat and fish.

During the week under review, fruits became dearer by 25.25% on year-on-year, while egg, meat and fish were 14.96% more expensive.

Cereals' prices went up by 4.48% on an annual basis and, rice and wheat became expensive by 2.08% and 1.31%, respectively.

Onions became expensive by 8.28% year-on-year. Vegetables overall became dearer by 1.53%. Potatoes were up by 1.21%. Milk became expensive by 4.05% on an annual basis.

Pulses, however, bucked the trend and witnessed a decline of 5.67%.

During the week under review, non-food articles were up by 27.69% year-on-year. Fuel and power became dearer by 13.05%, while petrol was up 21.81%.