New Delhi: Pointing out that the rising rate of inflation is an issue of social concern, Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Thursday said it can only be tackled through increased supply of farm products.
Due to no major hike in the prices of many food articles, fuels and power the annual rate of inflation rose marginally to 6.10 per cent from 6.05 for the week ended February 24.
The rise in inflation by 0.05 per cent has been mainly attributed to some manufactured products including cement, chemical products like capsules, vitamins and antibiotics, steel wire, and zinc ingots, which remained costlier.
The annual inflation rate calculated on a point-to-point basis was 4.18 per cent during the corresponding week of 2006.
''Supply-side is indeed a durable answer to inflation. More wheat, more rice, more sugar, more pulses and more oil seeds is the answer,'' PTI quoted Chidambaram as saying.
The Wholesale Price Index (WPI) for all commodities for the week ended February 24 rose by 0.1 per cent to 208.8 from 208.6 for the previous week.
The index for the Primary Articles group declined by 0.5 per cent to 213.9 from 215.0 for the previous week.
The index for Food Articles group declined by 0.6 per cent to 214.6 from 215.9 for the previous week due to lower prices of gram (6 per cent), fruits and vegetables (3 per cent), urad (2 per cent), and condiments and spices, jowar and barley (1 per cent each).
However, the prices of fish-marine (6 per cent), ragi (2 per cent) and arhar (1 per cent) moved up.
The index for Non-Food articles group declined by 0.2 per cent to 196.3 from 196.7 for the previous week due to lower prices of raw rubber (4 per cent), soyabean and raw cotton, (2 per cent each) and copra (1 per cent).
However, the prices of niger seed (13 per cent) and groundnut seed, castor seed and linseed (1 per cent each) moved up.
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