India's year-on-year food inflation dropped to 7.7 per cent in the week ending April 30, compared with 8.53 per cent the previous week, as prices of essential food items like milk, pulses and meat eased, government data showed Thursday, according to dpa. India's industrial production accelerated in March, to 7.3 per cent - the fastest growth rate in four months - compared with 3.6 per cent in February, according to a Commerce Ministry statement. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said he was happy to announce that the comforting news on the inflation front was matched by the turnaround in the index for industrial production. Even though food inflation was declining, the concern on higher core inflation remained, Mukherjee said in a statement. He said the recent monetary policy announcements should help in addressing such concerns. The Reserve Bank of India raised key interest rates by 50 basis points on May 3 in an effort to curb persistently high inflation.
