After falling for two weeks in a row, inflation once again firmed up marginally to 6.10 per cent for the week ended February 24 against 6.05 a week ago despite decline in prices of essential food items as some manufactured products like cement became dearer.

The official data on inflation came a day after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressed relief in Parliament that inflation rate has declined in the last two weeks.

Wholesale price-based index inflation rate stood at 4.18 per cent during the corresponding week last year.

The prime minister had said growth cannot be allowed to fuel inflation, particularly when it hurts the common man.

While prices of most food products, which hit the common man the most fell, those of manufactured goods went up.

Cement prices rose by 0.4 per cent. This data was the latest before the budget, which imposed dual taxation on cement to encourage producers to sell at less prices.

Prices of some capsules other than vitamins and antibiotics became expensive up to 24 per cent. Fuel prices, however, remained intact at the previous week's level.

Also on Thursday, Finance Minister P Chidambaram had described rising inflation as a larger social problem, much more than the political or economic one.