High potato, pulses rates push food inflation to 19.83%

Food inflation rose to 19.83 per cent for the week ended December 19 on the back of spurting prices of potato and pulses.

In the second week of December, the food inflation was at 18.65 per cent.

Potato prices more than doubled while pulses became costly by over 41 per cent over the last year. Onion rates rose by 40.75 per cent.

Prices of vegetables rose by 46.7 per cent while fruits became dearer by 10.35 per cent.

The spike in prices was significant on a weekly basis also, with bajra and wheat becoming dearer by 12 per cent and 4 per cent respectively, while rates of rice increased by 2 per cent.

At the same time, barley and urad were rose by 1 per cent each. However, prices of fruit and vegetables declined by 5 per cent on weekly basis.

The food inflation had declined by 1.30 percentage points to 18.65 per cent during the second week of December.

Among the non-food articles, raw rubber turned expensive by 3 per cent and rape and mustard seed by 1 per cent.

The fuel index remained unchanged.