New Delhi, Oct 24: A marginal drop in prices of edible oil and manufactured products brought down the Inflation rate to 4.95 per cent during the week ended October 11, 2003. The inflation had inched up to 5.08 per cent last week on account of a sharp 10 per cent increase in the prices of vegetables coupled with costlier primary products, fuel and manufactured products.

The index for the major fuel, power, light and lubricants group rose by 0.7 per cent to 254.8 (provisional) from 253.1 (provisional) for the previous week due to higher prices of coke (12 per cent) and electricity (2 per cent), according to figures released by the ministry of commerce and industry.

The index for "food products" sub-group under the major manufactured products group showed a decline by 0.1 per cent due to four per cent decline in prices of extracted groundnut oil, 2 per cent decline in imported edible oil besides lowering of prices of rice bran oil, hydrogenated vanaspati, gingelly oil and sugar by one per cent each.

The "textiles" group also came down by 1.3 per cent due to lower prices of cotton yarn hanks (6 per cent) and texturised yarn (2 per cent). However, the prices of polyster staple fibre rose by 3 per cent, the ministry release said.

Higher prices of enamels (4 per cent) and tooth paste (2 per cent) pushed up the "chemicals and chemical products" group by 0.1 per cent.
The index for "basic metal alloys and metal products" group declined by 0.1 per cent due to lower prices of aluminium foils (3 per cent).

Bureau Report