Inflation falls further to 5.61%

The pressure on commodity prices eased further with inflation falling marginally by 0.06 per cent to 5.61 per cent during the week ended May 7 mainly due to fall in prices of food and manufactured products.

The widely tracked point-to-point wholesale price index (WPI) inflation fell from the previous week's level of 5.67 per cent and it was 4.60 per cent in the year ago period. The Reserve Bank of India had estimated 5-5.5 per cent for the current financial year.

The WPI fell by 0.1 per cent to 192 points due to drop in the index of mass consumption primary articles and heavy weighted manufactured products even as fuel prices remained unchanged. The index was 181.8 points in the year ago period.

Oil PSUs have not so far raised the prices of petroleum products, a move, which can spurt inflation. The four Left partieshad repeatedly opposed any move to hike prices of petro-products.

However, world oil prices, which had closed below $50 a barrel in the previous week, rose to hover above $51 a barrel during the week in review, mainly due to expected tightness in future supplies.

The government revised upwards inflation to 5.40 per cent during the week ended March 12 as compared to the provisional estimate of 5.23 per cent.

The WPI stood corrected at 189.4 points during the second week of March against provisional level of 189.1 points.