Food inflation falls to 9.55% for week ended 27 Aug

New Delhi: Food inflation fell to a single-digit at 9.55 percent for the week ended 27 August after breaching the double-digit mark in the previous week, with prices of all items, barring pulses and wheat, going up on an annual basis.Food inflation, as measured on the basis of the Wholesale Price Index (WPI), stood at 10.05 percent in the previous week. The rate of price rise of food items was 14.76 percent in the corresponding week of 2010.[caption id="attachment_79019" align="alignleft" width="380" caption="Diptendu Dutta/AFP"][/caption]As per data released by the government today, prices of pulses fell by 1.56 percent year-on-year, while wheat became cheaper by 1.04 percent during the week ended 27 August. However, other food items became more expensive during the week under review.Onions grew dearer by 42.03 percent on an annual basis, while potato prices were up by 13.38 percent during the week under review. Fruits became 16.57 percent more expensive and overall, prices of vegetables shot up by 22.42 percent on an annual basis in the week ended 27 August. The prices of eggs, meat and fish were up 7.26 percent, while milk and cereals became dearer by 9.12 percent and 5.45 percent, respectively.The fall in food inflation could be attributed to a moderation in the rate of price rise of some of the items on a week-on-week basis, even though they continued to go up. In the previous week ended 30 July, the rate of pricerise of items like onions, vegetables, milk and cereals was more on an annual basis in comparison to the week under review.The decline could also be attributed to the high inflation rate of over 14 percent in the corresponding year-ago period, a phenomenon dubbed as the 'high base effect' in economic parlance.PTI