The Reserve Bank's repeated rate hikes point to its concern over inflation. Consumer price inflation has been in double digits for the two consecutive years. The last time annual consumer price inflation was in double digits was in 1998-99 for a single year. The average annual inflation rate (calculated from the Consumer Price Index of Industrial Workers with 2001 as the base year) was 12.05 per cent peaked in 2009-10, declining slightly last financial year (2010-11) to 11.12 per cent.