India's domestic rice purchases in the new season from October fell 2.5 percent from a year ago, but the country has enough stocks to manage smooth supplies despite last year's drought, officials and analysts said. Official agencies bought 19.3 million tonnes of rice from farmers between October 1 and January 28, down 0.5 million tonnes from a year earlier, a government statement said on Friday.

"Comfortable stocks will help the government release rice stocks to check prices," said Veeresh Hiremath, a senior analyst with commodity brokerage Karvy Comtrade. Despite slowing purchases by state-run agencies, rice stocks at government warehouses are substantially higher than targeted. On January 1, rice stocks were at 24.3 million tonnes, more than double the target of 11.8 million tonnes. Last year's weakest monsoon rains in more than three decades helped food prices rise 20 percent in December, raising India's inflation rate to a one-year high of 7.3 percent.

Copyright Reuters, 2010