New Delhi, Sep 15: Food inflation marginally eased to 9.47 per cent for week ended September 3 but there is no respite for the common man as most of the items, like onion and potato, continued to remain expensive.
Food inflation measured by the Wholesale Price Index was 9.55 per cent in the previous week.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said that inflation has reached the “peak” and hoped it to gradually moderate. However, he admitted that it will take some time before prices of essential kitchen items like onion and potato decline.
“We may have seen the peak as far as monthly inflation rates are concerned with the release of figures for August 2011 yesterday. Here onwards we should see a gradual moderation in monthly headline inflation,” Mukherjee said on the social networking site Facebook.
Headline inflation had touched 13-month high of 9.78 per cent in August.
“Inflation in certain commodities like onion and potato are still a concern. The steps that we have taken will have some moderating influence but it is taking time and it will continue for some time,” Mukherjee said while talking to reporters.
Onions were dearer by 43 per cent on an annual basis, while potato prices were up 21 per cent, as per latest data.
The government, last week, put a ban on exports of onion, which is available between Rs 10.75 per kg and Rs 12.80 per kg in the wholesale markets here. Retail prices of onion in the NCR region are at Rs 20-25 per kg. PTI
