A week after declining to an 18-months low, food inflation rose again, albeit marginally, to 8.69 per cent for the week ended 27th November on back of rise in prices of rice, onions, fruits and milk.

Food inflation in the previous week stood at 8.60 per cent, which was the lowest since May last year.

The upward trend in food inflation also marked a break of seven consecutive weeks of fall in food prices.

Food inflation during the corresponding week of last year was 20.24 per cent.

During the week under review, rice became costlier by 1.60 per cent on an annual basis, according to the government data released on Thursday.

Cereals overall also became dearer by 0.66 per cent, while food items like egg, meat and fish rose by 16.16 per cent year-on-year.

In vegetables segment, onions were expensive by 25.48 per cent.

On a year-on-year basis, fruits and milk became costlier by 18.31 per cent and 17.76 per cent, respectively.

However, wheat prices went down by 3 per cent on an annual basis.

While pulses fell by 10.91 per cent, vegetables became cheaper by 3.42 per cent largely aided by a sharp dip in potato prices that came down by as much as 45.40 per cent on an annual basis.

The sudden rise in food inflation, after a record fall, is likely to be a cause of worry for the government which was looking at a decline in the overall inflation to 6 per cent by March next year.

Overall inflation, which also takes account of manufactured goods, primary articles and fuels, was 8.58 per cent in October.

The data for November is expected next week.

Chief Economic Advisor Kaushik Basu earlier this week said that overall inflation is likely to decline to around 7.5 per cent in November.