New Delhi: India's annual rate of inflation, based on wholesale prices, inched up to (-)3.81 percent for October from (-)4.54 percent for the month before, mainly on account of a whopping 86-percent spike in the prices of onions and 53 percent in pulses over the past year.

According to the data on official wholesale prices index released by the commerce and industry ministry, the indices for both the major groups of primary articles and manufactured products registered a decline of 0.36 percent and 1.67 percent, respectively, during the month under review.