Thursday, April 21 2005 20:01 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Rising for the second consecutive week, inflation touched 5.48 per cent for the week ended April 9, mainly due to costlier vegetables, fruits, cooking gas and edible oils.

The point-to-point Wholesale Price Index (WPI) inflation rose by 0.22 per cent to touch a 12-week high of 5.48 per cent from the previous week's level of 5.26 per cent despite manufactured product prices remaining firm.

The widely-tracked WPI inflation was 4.57 per cent in the previous year period.

Apprehending further escalation in inflation if oil PSUs decide to hike prices of petrol and, notably diesel, due to high global prices, markets expect the Reserve Bank might factor in these when it unveils the Monetary Policy next week.

During the week under review, global oil prices, which had clocked an all-time high of over 58 dollars a barrel on April 4, eased to litre over $ 53.

Government had informed Parliament that containment of inflation remained high on its agenda.

The WPI rose by 0.3 per cent to 190.7 points during the second week of this month with the indices of primary articles and fuels going up. The index was 180.8 points in the year-ago period.

Government revised upwards inflation to 5.12 per cent during the week ended February 12 as compared to provisional estimate of 5.01 per cent, while WPI stood corrected at 89 points during the second week of February against provisional level of 188.8 points.