Food Inflation Eases To 9.32%

By Reuters

  • 13 Oct 2011

India's food price index rose 9.32 per cent and the fuel price index climbed 15.10 per cent in the year to Oct. 1, government data on Thursday showed.

In the previous week, annual food and fuel inflation stood at 9.41 per cent and 14.69 per cent, respectively.

The primary articles index was up 10.60 per cent, compared with an annual rise of 10.84 per cent a week earlier.

The RBI has raised interest rates a dozen times in the past 18 months, in a campaign that has done more to slow growth than contain inflation, which remains at more than twice the bank's comfort level.

Data on Wednesday showed India's industrial production expanded less than expected in August in further evidence of a slowdown in Asia's third-largest economy as soaring interest rates and persistently high inflation weigh on demand.

Whether the persistent weakness in industrial output growth will spur the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) into ending a long cycle of rate rises may be determined by Friday's September headline inflation data.

Indian inflation in August accelerated to 9.78 per cent, its highest in more than a year, from 9.22 per cent in July.

The RBI will meet on Oct. 25 to review its policy.