Rising prices of food items like pulses, sugar and vegetables pushed up inflation to minus 0.21% for the week ended August 22, a rise of 74 basis points over the previous week.
Though inflation remained negative for the 12th week in a row since the week ending June 6, experts say it's only a matter of time before the wholesale price-based inflation turns positive owing to unrelenting rise in food prices.
Inflation for the previous week was minus 0.95% and it stood at 12.76% in the corresponding week last year. The build up of inflation in the current financial year so far is 5.29%.
Sugar price rose by 7% during the week that ended on August 22. Similarly, fruits and vegetables became costly by 4%, jowar, urad and bajra by 3% each, and maize and arhar by 2% each.
"It (rise in inflation) is a major jump. The market was expecting it to be minus 0.87%. Prices of agricultural products in general and food in particular shot up over the week," HDFC Bank chief economist Abheek Barua said.
Other items that became expensive during the week include aviation turbine fuel and electricity (5% each), oil cakes (5%), imported edible oil (4%), and plastic items (6%).
Prices of food articles that rose by 1% each during the week include moong, tea, butter and ghee.
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