Friday, July 22 2005 13:14 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Petrol and diesel price hike appears to have delayed impact as inflation rose to 4.14 per cent in the week ended July nine mainly due to costlier food and non-food products and minerals.

The point-to-point Wholesale Price Index (WPI) inflation rose by a marginal 0.05 per cent from the previous week's 4.09 per cent and it was as high as 7.44 per cent in the previous year period.

Credit rating agency ICRA had expected inflation to be near 4.0 per cent till September, after which it may rise to 5.0 per cent by December.

WPI rose by 0.2 per cent to 193.9 points since primary articles become costlier, while fuel and manufactured items' indices remained unchanged and the index was 186.2 points a year ago.

Government increased the prices of petrol and diesel by Rs 2.50 and Rs 2 a litre respectively on June 21.

During the week in review, global crude oil prices had hit record high of above $62 a barrel before backing off amid heightened market uncertainty following a string of explosions in the British capital.

ICRA had cautioned that world oil prices would continue to be $55-60 a barrel, a prediction that is in contrast to Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar's hopes that the oil bubble will burst with price retreating to $40 a barrel.

The final inflation was revised upwards to 5.60 per cent during the week ended May 14 as compared to the provisional estimate of 5.55 per cent, while WPI stood corrected at 192.2 points in the second week of May against the provisional level of 192.1 points.

The Primary Articles' group index rose by 0.7 per cent to 190.3 points due to costlier food and non-food articles, and minerals. The index was 188.6 points a year ago.

The index for Food Articles' group was up by 0.8 per cent to 192.3 points owing to higher prices of poultry chicken (five per cent), vegetables (four per cent), fruits, barley and moong (two per cent each) and gram, masur, urad, wheat, maize, arhar and ragi (one per cent each).

However, prices fell for tea (five per cent), bajra (three per cent) and jowar and condiments and spices (one per cent each).

Non-Food Articles' group index increased by 0.5 per cent to 180.7 points due to higher prices of raw tobacco (four per cent), groundnut seed (three per cent), cotton seed (two per cent) and sunflower, rape and mustard seed and castor seed (one per cent each).

But prices declined for skins and gingelly seed (two per cent each) and copra, fodder, soyabean, raw cotton and raw jute (one per cent each).

The index for Minerals' group was up by 0.4 per cent to 250.1 points as prices shot up for bauxite (78 per cent) and fire clay (11 per cent). But barytes became cheaper by six per cent and iron ore by one per cent.

Fuel, Power, Light and Lubricants group index stood firm at the previous week's level of 303.9 points. The index was 275.1 points in the year ago period.

Manufactured Products' group index also remained unchanged at the previous week's level of 170.6 points despite costlier food products, chemicals and machinery. The index was 165.6 points a year ago.