New Delhi, Mar 07: The annual rate of inflation rose marginally to 5.94 per cent for the week ended February 21 as against 5.84 of the previous week due to higher prices of poultry chicken, eggs, fruits and vegetables and manufactured products. It was 5.84 per cent in the previous week and 5.53 per cent in the year-ago period.

However, the present level of inflation is still higher than the government's expectation of 4-4.5 per cent by the end of the current fiscal.

The wholesale price index was up by 0.3 per cent to 180 points during the week as there was no change in the index for fuel, power, light and lubricants and it was at 169.9 points in the same period of 2002-03.

Inflation rate for the week ended December 27, 2003 had been revised to 5.86 per cent from 5.75 per cent estimated earlier. The final WPI stood at 176.9 points during the last week of December as against the provisional figure of 176.7 points.

The index for the major group of primary articles rose by 0.5 per cent to 183.1 from 182.1 for the previous week.

In the food articles group, which rose by 0.6 per cent to 181 from 179.9, prices of poultry chicken moved up by 10 per cent, fish-inland (4 per cent), eggs and fruits and vegetables (2 per cent each) and bajra, maize and rage (1 per cent each). However, the prices of arhar (2 per cent) and condiments and spices, gram (1 per cent each) declined.

Bureau Report