New Delhi, September 16:

India’s inflation rate is expected to average between 5 to 5.5 per cent this fiscal year, despite high global oil prices, a senior finance ministry official said on Friday. Although rising global crude prices have forced the Indian government to recently hike retail prices of petroleum products, the overall inflation rate remains moderate because of smaller increases in the price of food and industrial raw material, government data released on Friday showed The inflation rate stood at 3.1 percent for the week ended September.