The following is the unedited transcript of the news release from Office of the Economic Adviser, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, New Delhi

The WPI for the week ended 6th March, 2010 in respect of ‘Primary Articles and ‘Fuel, Power, Light & Lubricants’ is given below:

PRIMARY ARTICLES (Weight 22.02%)

The WPI for the week ended 6th March, 2010 declined by 0.9 percent to 282.1 (Provisional) from 284.7 (Provisional) for the previous week.

The annual rate of inflation, calculated on point to point basis, stood at 14.16 percent (Provisional) for the week ended 06/03/2010 (over 07/03/2009) as compared to 15.08 percent (Provisional) for the previous week (ended 27/02/2010) and 5.06 percent during the corresponding week (ended 07/03/2009) of the previous year.

The groups and items for which the index showed variations during the week are as follows:-

The index for ''Food Articles'' group declined by 1.1 percent to 282.6 (Provisional) from 285.7 (Provisional) for the previous week due to lower prices of urad and arhar (6% each), tea and fruits & vegetables (4% each), moong (3%), eggs (2%) and masur, fish-marine, gram, bajra and wheat (1% each). However, the price of jowar (1%) moved up.

The index for ''Non-Food Articles'' group declined by 0.6 percent to 255.0 (Provisional) from 256.5 (Provisional) for the previous week due to lower prices of niger seed (10%), soyabean (6%), sunflower (4%), rape & mustard seed (2%) and copra and linseed (1% each). However, the prices of mesta and raw rubber (2% each) and gingelly seed and groundnut seed (1% each) moved up.

FUEL, POWER, LIGHT & LUBRICANTS (Weight 14.23%)

The index for this major group rose by 0.1 percent to 361.7 (Provisional) from 361.2 (Provisional) for the previous week due to higher prices of light diesel oil (5%), aviation turbine fuel (4%), bitumen (3%) and furnace oil (2%). However, the price of naphtha (3%) declined.

The annual rate of inflation, calculated on point to point basis stood at 12.68 percent (Provisional) for the week ended 06/03/2010 over 07/03/2009 as compared to 11.38 percent (Provisional) for the previous week (ended 27/03/2010) and (-)5.95 percent during the corresponding week (ended 07/03/2009) of the previous year.

Build up inflation over the week, financial year end and over the year is given in Annexure–1 for some important items.

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