New Delhi, Oct 17: A sharp 10 per cent increase in the price of vegetables coupled with costlier primary products, fuel and manufactured products marginally pushed up inflation to 5.08 per cent for the week ended October 4. The point-to-point price change as measured by wholesale price index (WPI) was 5.03 per cent in the previous week and it averaged to 5.02 per cent for first six months of this year on provisional basis.

However, inflation was only 3.08 per cent in the year-ago period, indicating that the cost of living increased by 200 basis points in one year.
The WPI rose by 0.2 per cent to 175.9 points during the latest reported week due to hike in the prices of all the major groups -- primary items, fuels and manufactured products. The index was 167.4 points in the previous year.
For the first time in this calendar year, government revised downwards the inflation to 3.89 per cent for the week ended August 9, 2003 against the provisional level of 3.95 per cent. Bureau Report