New Delhi Costly petroleum products and some food items pushed inflation rate to nine-month high of 4.89 per cent for the week ended February 16, vindicating the cautious approach adopted by RBI in its quarterly monetary review.
The data partly captures the rise in petroleum prices announced on February 14. The government hiked petrol and diesel prices by Rs 2 and Re 1 a litre, respectively.
The wholesale price index-based inflation rate was 4.35 per cent in the week preceding the one under review, and 6.05 per cent in the corresponding week a year ago, according to official figures released today.
This is the fourth week in a row when inflation rate is more than four per cent and is nearing RBI tolerance level of 5 per cent for the current fiscal.
During the week under review, prices of petrol moved up by six per cent, high-speed diesel oil and light speed diesel oil by three per cent each, while bitumen got costlier by six per cent.
While prices of wheat, maize, urad and fruits and vegetables declined one per cent, gram got expensive by 3 per cent, and jowar by 2 per cent.
In his budget speech today, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said that keeping inflation under check is one of the cornerstones of the Government's policy.
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