Inflation rate fell below the eight per cent mark during the week after shedding 0.12 percentage points from the 8.10 per cent (provisional) recorded during the week ended October 10, while a year ago it stood at 4.63 per cent.

However, inflation calculated on consumer price index for industrial workers shot up to 16.3 per cent during September when WPI-based estimates stood at only 8.2 per cent.

The sustained increase in the wholesale price index (WPI) for "all commodities" (base:1981-82=100) also abated this week as the WPI declined 0.1 per cent to 358.4 (p) from 358.8 (p) of a week earlier.

In the last three weeks inflation fell by 0.71 percentage points while, index for all commodities increased by 0.58 percentage points.

Meanwhile, the rate of inflation based on the finalindex for the week ended august 22 stood at 8.4 per cent compared to 8.2 per cent on the provisional index. The final index for all commodities for the week stood at 353.8 as against 353.2 on the provisional index.

Inflation based on consumer price index shot up from 15 per cent in August to 16.3 per cent in September, reflecting the true nature of price rise in recent times.

The consumer price index number for industrial workers (base: 1982=100) shot up by a whopping seven points during September to 420 points, largely on account of the steep rise in vegetable prices, especially those of onions.

Interestingly, WPI data for the present week shows a decline in the prices of fruits and vegetables by two per cent as well as an overall 0.2 per cent drop in the index for the major group "primary articles", dealing with food items.

Index for the major group "manufactured products" also declined while that for "fuel, power, light and lubricants" remained unchanged during the week.The primary articles indexdeclined 0.3 per cent to 392.4 from 393.5 due to lower prices of both food and non-food articles.

The food articles index declined by 0.2 per cent to 464.9 from 466 due to fall in prices fruits and vegetables (2 per cent), rice, wheat, barley and ragi (one per cent each).

However, prices of tea (9 per cent), urad (4 per cent), maize (2 per cent), jowar, gram, moong and fish (one per cent each) appreciated during the week under review.

Index for non-food articles also fell by 0.5 per cent to 378.6 from 380.4 due to lower prices of raw jute and gingelly seed (3 per cent each), raw cotton and cottonseed (2 per cent each), raw silk and groundnut seed (one per cent each). However, copra and fodder were costlier by three per cent each during the week.