Inflation marginally down

The annual inflation rate fell marginally by 0.53 percentage points to 7.03 per cent in the week-ended October 7, despite fuel and primary articles continuing to rise.

The point-to-point inflation rate, based on the wholesale price index (WPI) for all commodities, continued to stay above the seven-per cent mark for the second consecutive week from previous week's level of 7.56 per cent and 3.53 per cent a year ago.

The WPI rose 0.3 per cent to 156.9 from the previous weeks figure of 156.5 and 146.6 points for the corresponding period last year. The final WPI for the week-ended August 12 stood at 153.3 points against the provisional figure of 152.9.

The all-India consumer price index (CPI) numbers for agricultural and rural labourers on the base 1986-87=100 for September decreased by two points and one point respectively to stand at 306 for agricultural labourers and 308 for rural labourers.