Indian inflation rises

NEW DELHI: India’s inflation edged higher to 6.10 per cent after falling for two straight weeks, official figures showed Friday, as prices of manufactured goods rose. The wholesale

price index, India’s most closely watched cost-of-living monitor, showed inflation rose to 6.10 per cent for the week ended February 24 from 6.05 per cent the previous week

and was up from 4.18 per cent the same week a year earlier. While prices of some foods like vegetables showed sharp falls, the cost of manufactured goods such as cement rose, the

data showed.—AFP

Interest rates stable

LONDON: Market jitters may have led to temporary reprieve. Property inflation up 1.8 per cent, Halifax reports The Bank of England yesterday (MAR8) ignored news of a sharp rise in house prices from Britain’s biggest mortgage lender to leave interest rates unchanged at 5.25 per cent for a second month. With the chancellor (finance minister) Gordon Brown’s 11th budget less than a fortnight away, the Bank’s monetary policy committee (MPC) decided against the quarter-point increase in borrowing costs predicted by a minority of analysts.—The Guardian