Inflation of commodities used by agricultural and rural labourers fell to 14.96 per cent in April, lower by 81 basis points for farm labourers and 56 basis points for rural labourers over the previous month.

The Consumer Price Index for agricultural labourers (CPI-AL) and rural labourers (CPI-RL) was 15.77 per cent and 15.52 per cent in March, respectively. The rate of inflation during April 2009 was 9.09 per cent for both the series.

The retail price inflation was 56 per cent higher than inflation based on wholesale prices for the same month. The Wholesale Price Inflation (WPI) was 9.59 per cent in April.

The divergence between WPI and retail inflation was due to higher weightage of food prices in consumer price indices.

Food articles weigh about 43-48 per cent in the CPI.

Food inflation stood at 16.49 per cent for the first week of May. It had crossed 20 per cent last December. Though it later moderated to an extent, it had been fluctuating above the 16 per cent level over the last few months.

Economists say food inflation is likely to come down significantly only in the later half of the fiscal, when the effect of a normal monsoon becomes visible on crops.

Reflecting the overall easing of food inflation, consumer price indices had also been falling since January. April retail indices showed a third straight decline.

The fall or rise in index varied from state to state. In case of agricultural labourers, 14 states reflected a rise of 1 to 7 points in the index, while six states showed a decline between 1 and 9 points, a labour bureau release said.

Haryana, with 604 points, topped the index table whereas Himachal Pradesh, with 460 points, stood at the bottom.

In case of rural labourers, 14 states showed an increase in the index by 1 to 7 points, and a decrease between 3 to 9 points in five states, the statement said. It remained stationary in one state.

Here also, Haryana topped the index table with 600 points and Manipur figured at the bottom of the index with 463 points.

Spiralling prices of rice, jowar, pulses, milk, green chillies, tamarind, vegetables, fruits and tea pushed up the index numbers of Andhra Pradesh. The state registered the highest increase of seven points each in the CPI-AL and CPI-RL.

"On the other hand, the CPI numbers of Punjab and Rajasthan for agricultural labourers, and Rajasthan state for rural labourers, recorded the highest decrease of nine points each, mainly due to the decrease in prices of wheat/wheat atta, jowar, bajra, onion, sugar and gur," it said.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee recently said that WPI is likely to fall below 5 per cent by the end of this fiscal, from the current 9.59 per cent. Reserve Bank projections peg inflation at 5.5 per cent by the end of this fiscal.