Food inflation inches up to 13.68%

The Primary Articles index rose by 9.16% in the week ended October 31 versus 8.94% in the preceding week, the Government said. Inflation for the Food Articles group stood at 13.68% in the week under review as against 13.39% in the previous week. The index of Fuel & Power group declined by 1.71% in the last week of October compared to a drop of 6.2% in the week ended Oct. 24. From last week, the Government stopped releasing the weekly WPI data. The data for "All Commodities" for October was scheduled for release on November 12, but will now be released on Nov. 14, according to top officials in the Union Ministry for Commerce and Industry. In its mid-year review of the annual policy late last month, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) raised the WPI inflation projection to 6.5% with an upside bias by end-March 2010, from 5% earlier.