The recent 0.08 per cent jump in the inflation rate was mainly due to the increase in prices of ragi, rock phosphates, rice bran oil, gur, board manufacture, building bricks, grinding wheels, tractors, glass sheets, textile machinery, diesel fuel pumps and house service meters. But tea, kardi seed, raw silk, pvc resins and castor oil becamecheaper during the week under review. The inflation rate had been hovering in single digit region for 209 weeks at a stretch, surpassing the old record of 1993 when it stood in the single digit level for 52 weeks in succession. It had been on the decline for three weeks in a row despite predictions that it may rise due to the railway freight hikes and other budgetary measures. According to the debt market update, the inflation rate would see a low levels towards the end of the current calender year due to normal monsoons and stability in fuel prices.

With international petroleum prices coming down considerably, the domestic diesel prices dropped significantly.