An 11 per cent increase in vegetable prices pushed the inflation rate to this fiscal's highest at 4.61 per cent for the week ended January 25, as against 1.29 per cent during the same period last year.

Price hikes in food and non-food articles pushed up the point-to-point inflation -- as measured by the wholesale price index -- 0.19 per cent to clock a 56-week high, compared with 4.42 per cent in the previous week.

The WPI rose 0.1 per cent to 168 even as prices fell marginally for heavy-weighted manufactured products, while the fuel group index stood firm after rising in the previous week. The index was 160.6 in the same period a year ago.

Inflation has been continuously rising since the beginning of January, but the Reserve Bank of India has said it is not a cause for worry.

The final WPI and the inflation rate for the week ended November 30 remained at their provisional levels of 167.5 and 3.40 per cent, respectively.

The index for the primary articles group rose 1 per cent to 175.2, making food articles costlier by 1 per cent and non-food items by 1.1 per cent. The index was 164.8 in the same week previous year.

The food articles group index rose to 177.1 on account of costlier vegetables (11 per cent), fish-marine (7 per cent) and eggs (4 per cent).

Prices, however, dipped for jowar (3 per cent), maize and moong (2 per cent each), and arhar and masur (1 per cent each).

The index for non-food articles group increased to 174.8 due to price hike in niger seed (6 per cent), groundnut seed (5 per cent), raw silk and gingelly seed (4 per cent each), fodder (3 per cent), copra (2 per cent) and castor seed and tobacco (1 per cent each).

The index for fuel, power, light and lubricants group stood unchanged at the previous week's level of 241.8, even as international crude prices rose on war fears. The index was 227.3 last year.

The manufactured products group index declined 0.3 per cent to 149.1 mainly due to falling prices for food products, textiles, chemicals and non-metallic mineral products. The index was 144.3 a year ago.

The index for food products group fell 1 per cent to 153 due to lower prices for oil cakes (6 per cent) and ghee, rapeseed and mustard oil (1 per cent each).

However, prices increased for soyabean oil (3 per cent), gingelly oil and groundnut oil (2 per cent each) and maida, sooji-rawa, bran, khandsari, coconut oil and sunflower oil (1 per cent each).

The index for the textiles group declined 0.6 per cent to 124.2 due to cheaper cotton yarn-hanks (3 per cent), even as there was an 1 per cent increase in prices of texturised yarn and polyster yarn.

The chemicals and chemical products group index fell 0.1 per cent to 174.4 on account of price falls in safety matches (7 per cent) and liquid nitrogen (5 per cent).

The index for non-metallic mineral products group was down 0.1 per cent to 145.9 due to a marginal fall in the price of cement.

The index for rubber and plastic products rose 1.3 per cent to 138.3 due to price hikes in rubber chappal (26 per cent) and canvas footwear (4 per cent).

The index for basic metal alloys and metal products group increased 0.2 per cent to 147.4 on account of a 3 per cent increase in the price of bright bars and an 1 per cent price rise for bars and rods.