The fall in inflation rate despite a 0.4 per cent increase in wholesale price index for all commodities is due to the fact that the increase in the index was lower than corresponding increase for the same week last year.In the corresponding week last year, inflation had shot up to 4.29 per cent from 3.47 per cent in the previous week.

During the current week, reflecting the sharp increase in the prices of onions, index of vegetables shot up by 11.4 per cent from last week.The rate of inflation, calculated on a point-to-point basis, stood at 8.22 per cent (provisional) compared to 8.69 per cent (p) for the previous week.The index for all commodities (base: 1981-82=100) for the week registered a 0.4 per cent increase to 357.9 (p) compared to 356.6 (p) in the previous week.

Meanwhile, the rate of inflationbased on the final index for the week ended august 8, stood at 8.1 per cent compared to 7.9 per cent on the provisional index. The final index for all commodities for the week stood at 352.3 as against 351.9 on the provisional index.

Though the inflation based on WPI is still within the managable limit, inflation measured on the consumer price index for industrial workers (cpi-iw), a better indicator of rate of increase in prices, is at an astronomical 15.04 per cent. Compared to CPI, the average inflation based on wpi for August stood at 8.2 per cent.

Among the three major groups in WPI, indices of primary articles manufactured products increased during the week, and index for fuel, power, light and lubricants remained unchanged during the week.

The increase in primary articles was on account of a 1.5 per cent increase in index of food articles, while the increase in manufactured products was due to increase in indices of food products and non-metallic mineral products, which rose by 0.2 per cent and2.3 per cent respectively during the week.

Among the items which fluctuated substantially during the week were: vegetables (up 11 per cent), castor oil (up 4 per cent) soyabean (up 3 per cent), maize starch (up 3 per cent), building bricks (up 8 per cent), ceramic tiles (up 3 per cent), road rollers (up 3 per cent), drums (up 16 per cent), barrels (up 4 per cent) and steel ingots (plain carbon) and zinc (down 3 per cent each).