India’s annual rate of inflation jumped on Friday to a three and a half year high of 7.41 per cent, a rate that opposition politicians claimed would bring about the collapse of the Congress-led UPA coalition government if it endured.

The new figures for wholesale price inflation mean prices are rising at their fastest rate since November 2004 – far above the Reserve Bank of India’s comfort ceiling of 5 per cent. WPI inflation has more than doubled to an average of 6.4 per cent in March from its trough of 3.1 per cent in October 2007.