New Delhi: Food Inflation further eased to 16.04 percent for the week ended April 24, as arrival of rabi (winter) crops cooled down prices of essential items.
Inflation fell over 0.57 percent from 16.61 percent in the previous week on account of a percentage point drop in prices of fish, fruits, wheat and vegetables over the week.
However, tea prices rose 13 percent while maize, gram and eggs prices were up 1 percent each.
Prices of cereals eased by 0.19 percent and that of rice by 0.12 percent in the week, but pulses became costlier by 0.60 percent.
Besides arrival of rabi crops in the markets, analysts attributed the cooling trend in inflation to reports of a normal monsoon that has somewhat curbed aggressive speculative activity in food stocks.
Food Inflation, which topped 20 percent in December last year, came off from its high for the second consecutive week.
On yearly basis, prices of vegetables, including potatoes and onions fell, but those of milk, fruits and pulses remained high.
PTI
First Published: Thursday, May 06, 2010, 13:19