Annual inflation rate rose by 0.14 percentage points to touch 8.16 per cent in the week ended December 30 due to costlier primary and manufactured products. The point-to-point inflation rate based on the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) for all commodities (base year: 1993-94 =100) surpassed the 26 month's high of 8.02 per cent in the previous week and 3.04 per cent a year ago. The WPI, however, rose by 0.1 per cent to 157.7 from the previous week's level of 157.6 during the period.
The final WPI for all the commodities stood at 158.4 as against the provisional figure of 157.9 points for the week ended November 4. The final inflation rate for the first week of November was remarkably higher at 7.61 per cent than the provisional mark of 7.27 per cent.

In contrast to previous week's trend, prices of primary articles and manufactured products rose by a mere 0.1 per cent each, while fuel prices remained firm for the fifth consecutive week. Bureau Report