New Delhi: The annual rate of inflation remained unchanged at the previous week's level of 12.14 per cent for the week ended September 13, fresh data showed on Thursday.
The inflation rate, based on the official wholesale price index (WPI), stood at 3.51 per cent for the corresponding week last year.
The WPI data released by the ministry of commerce and industry showed an increase of 0.1 per cent in the index for primary articles such as fruits and groundnut seeds over the past week.
The index for fuel, power, light and lubricants remained unchanged at its previous week's level of 375.3 (provisional), which had declined 0.2 per cent, while that of manufactured products such as mustard oil, and textile items declined 0.05 per cent to 207.5 (provisional).
Alarmingly, the final data for WPI for the week ended July 19 showed that the inflation rate was actually 12.54 per cent, as against 11.98 per cent based on the provisional statistics.
"Inflation continues to remain stable," the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, said in a statement.
"In the primary articles group, the annual point-to-point inflation increased to 11.56 per cent, as compared to 11.27 per cent reported last week, though it remained lower than 11.83 per cent for the week ending August 9, 2008," it added.
It further added that of the total of 98 articles, 18 articles have shown a decline in prices in the current week as compared to Sep 6.
These included among others, rice, wheat, bajra, jowar, gram, moong, masur, urad, mustard, gingelly and niger seeds, cashew nuts, black pepper, cumin and brinjal.
"Another 58 articles have shown no increase in prices," the finance ministry statement said.
Former Reserve Bank of India Governor C. Rangarajan, who also chaired the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council, has forecast the inflation rate to moderate to 10 per cent by December.
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