It was the lowest since December 13, 1997 when it recorded 4.31 per cent. Two weeks ago (December 26 1998), it witnessed the sharpest fall in the current fiscal when it dropped by 0.87 per cent to come down to 5.34 per cent from 6.21 per cent in the previous week. It had touched the below five per cent mark after a gap of 44 weeks. However, the inflation rate almost touched the six per cent mark at 5.98% during the corresponding week last year (January 10, 1998).

The latest fall in the inflation rate was attributed to considerable decline in the prices of barley, ragi, fruits, vegetables, raw rubber, suji, solvent extracted groundnut oil, ball bearings, cement, formaldehyde and trailors. But urad, bajra, maize, sulphuric acid and broad gauge passenger carriages saw a rise intheir prices during the week under review.

The prices of vegetables have been showing a downward trend for some weeks. There had been substantial rise in prices of essential commodities for the past couple of months. The drop in the prices does not mean that the prices had come down drastically but it only shows that the price increase has been somewhat eased. The inflation rate has been on the decline since it touched the three-year high of 8.85 per cent on November 7. Since then it had clipped off 4.42 per cent.

It had been reigning in single digits for continuous 198 weeks since April one, 1995, brushing aside the old record of 1993.