New Delhi: Inflation remained at an unchanged high of 6.46 per cent in the week ending March 17.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram has already indicated changes in the monetary policy to bring down prices, as inflation for the same period last year was 3.69 per cent.
The price of wheat, arhar, barley, some fruits and vegetables has declined but poultry chicken, bajra, masur, fish-marine and jowar have become more expensive.
Cement has become more expensive and so have various kinds of edible oils. The price of minerals ochre, fluorite and magnesite has increased by 22-33 per cent.
Congress leaders admit that the party was defeated in Punjab and Uttarakhand because of inflation, and the 6.46 per cent figure must be worrying them as UP elections begin on April 7.
"The RBI (Reserve Bank of India) is the final arbitrators on interest rates. But given the rising inflation, it is a natural inference that there may be tightening of monetary policy—what form it will take I cannot say, on cash reserve ratio or repo or market stabilisation," Chidambaram said in Hong Kong on Thursday.
The inflation data for the week ended March 17 is the first after the Asian Development Bank projected economic growth to shrink to 8 per cent next fiscal, owing to tight monetary policy to contain overheating. The multilateral funding agency had also forecast that inflation would reduce to a tolerable five per cent in the next two years.
Wholesale price index (base 1993-94), on which inflation data is based, rose by 0.05 per cent to 209.4 points during the week from 209.3 points in previous week.
Food articles group index declined by 0.2 per cent during the week, mainly driven by lower prices of fruits and vegetables, wheat and arhar which fell by one per cent each.
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