New Delhi, Nov 14 (PTI) Inflation, based on wholesalerates, shot up to a 6-month high of 3.59 per cent in Octoberas prices of food items and fuel rose sharply.
As per the Wholesale Price Index (WPI), inflation was2.60 per cent in September.
In October last year, it was 1.27 per cent.
The inflation figure for October this year is the highestsince April, when it was at 3.85 per cent.
The government data released today showed that inflationin food articles more than doubled to 4.30 per cent inOctober.
In case of onions, it skyrocketed to 127.04 per cent,while for vegetables it was 36.61 per cent. In the eggs, meatand fish segment, the rate of price rise was 5.76 per cent.
ICRA Principal Economist Aditi Nayar said the spike inWPI inflation was broad-based, led by vegetables, fruit, crudeoil, natural gas, fuels, minerals and electricity.
"The sharper-than-anticipated uptick in the WPI inflationreinforces our expectation of a status quo in the upcomingmonetary policy review," Nayar said.
Reserve Bank of India is scheduled to come out with itsnext monetary policy review on December 6.
Inflation in manufactured products saw a slight dip to2.62 per cent, as against 2.72 per cent in September.
In the fuel and power segment, it rose to 10.52 per cent,as against 9.01 per cent in September.
Fuel inflation has remained high for the past threemonths as petrol and diesel prices continued to rule high,tracking global crude oil rates. Power tariffs shot throughthe roof on lower domestic production.
Industry chamber Assocham said the continuous increase inpetrol and diesel prices must be taken care of by policymakerssince it may have impact on the import bill and, subsequently,on exchange rates.
"It may also have a negative impact on input prices forthe industry which has already started to feel pressure on itsprofitability," it added.
Pulses continued to witness deflation at 31.05 per cent.
Likewise, in potato deflation was at 44.29 per cent and wheatat 1.99 per cent in October.
As per the Consumer Price Index (CPI) data releasedyesterday, retail inflation for October rose to a 7-month highof 3.58 per cent on costlier food items, especiallyvegetables.
Besides, industrial production for September expanded at3.8 per cent, on poor showing by the manufacturing sectorcoupled with decline in consumer durables output.
Last month, the Reserve Bank kept benchmark interest rateunchanged on fears of rising inflation while lowering growthforecast to 6.7 per cent for the current fiscal.
RBI also raised its inflation forecast to the 4.2-4.6 percent range for the rest of the current fiscal as against 4-4.5per cent previously. PTI JDSA.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.