The annual inflation rate of India slipped further to 4.39 percent during the week ended January 31. There has been a decline of 0.68 percent from 5.07 percent for the week before. During the corresponding week of the previous year, India's inflation rate was 4.74 percent. This means that country has been able to control the inflation rate considerably.

 

The fall in inflation occurred due to a 3.1 percent decline in the index for fuels. During the week under review, there was a 21 percent drop in prices of lignite. Apart from it, the price of petrol dropped by 11 percent while cooking gas prices declined by 8 percent and high speed diesel by 7 percent. The official data also showed that the index for primary articles fell 0.2 percent while that for manufacturing also declined 0.1 percent.  

 

During the previous week, the index of the food articles group declined by 0.6 percent as prices of fruit and vegetables fell by three per cent, and gram, barley, condiments and spices by one per cent each. India's annual inflation rate soared to 12.91 per cent in August last year. The inflation rate came down to single digit on November 2008 and since there has been a downward trend.