Global News Post: Inflation

India: Food Inflation Turns Negative; RBI May Cut Interest Rates

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<div style="border-bottom: double windowtext 2.25pt; border: none; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in;">  <div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: double windowtext 2.25pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: double windowtext 2.25pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">NEW DELHI (NNN-PTI) -- Food inflation turned negative in late December for the first time in many years as prices of vegetables like onion and potato declined, a development that may prompt the Reserve Bank of India to go for rate cuts at its next monetary policy review later this month.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: double windowtext 2.25pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: double windowtext 2.25pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Food inflation, measured by the wholesale price index (WPI), plunged to (-) 3.36 per cent as on Dec 24. This is the first time in almost six years, for which data with base year 2004-05 is available, that food inflation has shown a decline on an annual basis.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: double windowtext 2.25pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: double windowtext 2.25pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Encouraged by the development, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee said, "There has been substantial improvement. Food inflation has turned negative for the first time in the recent memory."<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: double windowtext 2.25pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: double windowtext 2.25pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Food inflation stood at 0.42 per cent in the previous week. It was 21 per cent in the corresponding week of 2010.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: double windowtext 2.25pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: double windowtext 2.25pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">According to official data released Thursday, onion became cheaper by 73.74 per cent year-on-year during the week, while potato prices were down by 34.01 per cent. Prices of wheat fell by 3.41 per cent. Overall, vegetables became 50.22 per cent cheaper during the week ended December 24.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: double windowtext 2.25pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: double windowtext 2.25pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The fall food price has been substantial since the first week of November, when food inflation stood at double-digit.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: double windowtext 2.25pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: double windowtext 2.25pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">"The environment appears to be in favour of the Reserve Bank reversing its monetary policy stance," Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council chairman C Rangarajan said.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: double windowtext 2.25pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: double windowtext 2.25pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">RBI, which has raised interest rates 13 times since March, 2010 to contain inflation, has already paused rate hike in its December mid-quarter policy review. The central bank is scheduled to announce next policy review on Jan 24. -- NNN-PTI</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div></div></div> <br />
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India: Food Inflation Turns Negative; RBI May Cut Interest Rates

NEW DELHI (NNN-PTI) -- Food inflation turned negative in late December for the first time in many years as prices of vegetables like oni...

US Inflation on the Rise

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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Rising energy and food prices drove up wholesale prices in the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region> in September.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Tuesday's report from the Labor Department says prices jumped eight-tenths of a percent for the month, and were up 6.9 percent from the same month a year earlier.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Some economists say the factors pushing up prices are probably temporary.<span>  </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Outside the volatile area of energy and food, prices in the overall economy rose more modest two-tenths of a percent for the month.<span>  </span>Economists call this the "core" rate of inflation. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The modest rate of core inflation means the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region> central bank will probably not raise interest rates in an effort to cool price increases.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The Federal Reserve pushed interest rates to ultra-low levels in 2008 and has kept them there in an effort to bolster economic growth.<span>    </span>---VOA News </span></div></div>

US Inflation on the Rise

Rising energy and food prices drove up wholesale prices in the United States in September. Tuesday's report from the Labor Department...