High prices of vegetables and manufactured items pushed up headline inflation in March to 8.98 per cent from 8.31 per cent in February. According to official data released today, the prices of primary articles food, non-food articles and minerals shot up by 12.96 per cent on an annual basis. Meanwhile, Food inflation declined to 8.28 per cent for the week ended April 2, from 9.18 per cent in the previous week.