Food inflation declined marginally, to 9.32 per cent for the week ended October 1st.Food inflation, as measured on the basis of the Wholesale Price Index (WPI), stood at 9.41 per cent in the previous week. The rate of price rise in food items had stood at 17.14 per cent in the corresponding week of 2010.The fall in food inflation could be attributed to a moderation in the rate of price rise for some of the items on a week-on-week basis, even though they remained higher on an annual basis.The fall could also be attributed to the high inflation rate of 17 per cent in the corresponding year-ago period, a phenomenon dubbed the 'high base effect' in economic parlance.As per data released by the government today, vegetable prices shot up by 13.01 per cent, with prices of potatoes rising by 3.79 per cent on an annual basis, during the week under review.However, onion prices declined by 10.15 per cent on an annual basis and wheat by 0.24 per cent.