For the week ended February 19, food inflation dropped over one percentage point to 10.39% headed by a declension in rates of onions, potatoes and pulses.

But, rates of fruit, milk and veggies as a group remained up.

Food inflation remained at 11.49% during the earlier reporting week and 21.62% in the same period a year ago.

According to facts issued by the administration, rates of potatoes fell 12.66% y-o-y, whereas pulses dropped 5.02%, onions by 3.64% and wheat by 2.06%.

The items, which became costlier during the week ended February 19 vis-a-vis the corresponding year-ago period were fruits (up 16.34%), egg, meat and fish (14.5%), veggies (14.29%) and milk (11.07%).

The slumping rates of certain food items will have a positive impact on headline inflation during the last month.

General inflation remained at 8.23% during January, much above the comfort level of 5-6%.