India inflation up again

India's inflation gained pace, fuelled by a massive leap in food prices on the back of the worst drought in decades, official data showed Thursday.
Annual inflation rose by a faster-than-expected 0.37 percent for the week ended September 12, according to the Wholesale Price Index (WPI), India's most-watched cost-of-living benchmark.
The figure was up from a 0.12 percent gain the previous week.
Economists had forecast about a 0.30 percent increase in the inflation rate.
The rise came as overall prices of raw food items climbed by a hefty 15.64 percent, driven mainly by a 44.85 percent rise in vegetable prices.
Earlier this week, weather data showed that India's monsoon was about 20 percent below strength just over a week before the official end of the rainy reason, putting the country on course for its worst drought since 1972.
Low rainfall early in the monsoon period hit India's rice, cane sugar and groundnut crops, threatening to cause shortages.
The drought is expected to dampen India's economic growth this year and has sent food prices rocketing, leading to huge hardship for India's poor masses.
The resurfacing of inflation has confronted the central bank with a dilemma about when to take the first steps to tighten monetary policy to keep a lid on prices.