The Hindu : Business : Inflation slips to 5.44 p.c.

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Saturday, May 19, 2007
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Inflation slips to 5.44 p.c.

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: In what may be viewed as some respite for the UPA Government completing its third year in office and for Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, the rate of inflation slid for the third week in a row to its four-month low of 5.44 per cent for the week ended May 5 from 5.66 per cent in the previous week and 4.37 per cent in the same week a year ago.

Although still ruling well above the five per cent mark, owing to which the Government drew flak from the Opposition as well as some of its coalition partners, the marginal fall in inflation rate witnessed during the week was due to slight softening in the prices of certain food items such as moong, sugar, flour, spices and oilseeds.

Earlier during the day, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressed confidence that his Government would succeed in bringing down the inflation level further to five per cent in the next couple of months. "The inflation rate is 5.5 per cent now, and we will bring it down to the level of five per cent. I hope we will succeed on this front in the next couple of months,'' Dr. Singh said on the sidelines of a function at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Meanwhile, as per the revised figures for the wholesale price index (WPI) for the week ended March 10, the rate of inflation stood corrected at 6.51 per cent as compared to the provisional figure of 6.46 per cent.

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