Inflation hits 13-year high of 11.42%

Annual inflation rate for the week ended June 14 raced to a 13-year high of 11.42%. It is the 18th consecutive week that the inflation rate has been above 5.5 per cent, the RBI's target by the end of the fiscal year in March 2009.

Inflation for the week April 19 was revised to 8.23% against 7.57% earlier. Primary articles were up by 0.2%. Fuel energy and power were up by 0.1%.

Manufacturing was up by 0.6%.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram has also said that double-digit inflation is likely to continue for a few more weeks before government efforts kick in to ease the rate of price rise.

Inflation will move up by few points to peak in the near future but will not act as a dampener to growth, Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath said on Thursday.

"It is going to go up by another 0.2 or 0.3 per cent. But we are hoping that in the next two months, we will have some effects of the measures we have taken," Nath told reporters here.

Government and RBI have taken several fiscal and monetary steps to cool inflation, but these measures may also have a slowdown effect on economic expansion.