Food inflation further eased to 16.04 per cent for the week ended April 24, as arrival of rabi (winter) crops cooled down prices of essential items.

Inflation fell over 0.57 per cent from 16.61 per cent in the previous week on account of a percentage point fall in prices of fish, fruits, wheat and vegetables over the week.

However, tea prices rose 13 per cent while maize, gram and eggs prices were up 1 per cent each.

Prices of cereals eased by 0.19 per cent and that of rice by 0.12 per cent in the week, but pulses became costlier by 0.60 per cent.

Besides arrival of rabi crops in the markets, analysts attributed the cooling trend in inflation to reports of a normal monsoon that has somewhat curbed aggressive speculative activity in food stocks.

Food Inflation, which topped 20 per cent in December last year, came off from its high for the second consecutive week.

On yearly basis, prices of vegetables, including potatoes and onions fell, but those of milk, fruits and pulses remained high.