New Delhi: Inflation pierced the five per cent mark for the first time this fiscal for the week ended May 22 mainly due to a whopping nine per cent rise in prices of vegetables and a moderate hike in the prices of other commodities like wheat, eggs and sugar.

After remaining below 5.0 per cent for 11 weeks, the point-to-point Wholesale Price Index (WPI) inflation continued to rise for the second consecutive week by 0.35 per cent to 5.02 per cent, playing spoilsport for the small investors and India Inc.

The recent data shows that general price level was more or less heading towards six per cent mark though oil prices in the domestic markets have not moved upwards due to the public sector refiners' inability to pass on the higher import prices in the face of continued surge in the global markets and the index was as high as 6.32 per cent in the year-ago period.

RBI (Reserve Bank of India), in its lean season credit policy, had stressed that inflation was expected to be 5.0 per cent for this year.

The WPI rose by 0.2 per cent to 181.9 points with all the major commodity groups Primary Articles and Fuels moving upwards. The index was 173.2 points in the year-ago period.

Government finally revised inflation to 4.64 per cent for the week ended March 27 as compared to provisional level of 4.47 per cent.

The final WPI stood corrected at 180.3 points during the last week of March as against the provisional mark of 180 points.