The Hindu Business Line : Cheaper chemicals, cement peg inflation lower

The trends
Fruits, arhar, jower, milk and moong all turned dearer.
Viscose staple fibre, polyster staple fibre ruled higher.
Prices of epoxy resins dipped by 72 per cent.

New Delhi , Sept. 22

The annual wholesale price index-based inflation touches 4.61 per cent during the week ended September 9, lower than the previous week's annual rise of 4.78 per cent. The dip in the year-on-year inflation rate was largely on account of a fall in prices of manufactured products, especially chemicals and cement, Government data showed on Friday.

Food articles dearer

The Wholesale Price Index (WPI) for all commodities ended the latest reported week at 206.6 points. The index was at 197.5 points during the corresponding week a year ago. The inflation rate was 4.11 per cent during the corresponding week of the previous year.

On a disaggregated basis, the Primary Articles group index rose 1.6 per cent to 212 points due to increase in prices of food articles. The index was at 197.2 points a year ago. The Fuel, Power, Light and Lubricants group index remained unchanged at the previous week's level of 326.6 points. The index was 313.9 points a year ago. The Manufactured Products group index declined by 0.1 per cent to 178 points due to cheaper chemicals, cement and machinery. The index was 171.7 points in the year ago period.

Among the Primary Articles' group, the Food Articles group index was up 2.4 per cent to 215.5 points due to higher prices of fruits (12.4 per cent), moong (5 per cent), arhar (4 per cent), jowar and milk (3 per cent each), gram, condiments and spices and eggs (2 per cent each) and mutton, urad and ragi (1 per cent each).

The Non-Food Articles group index declined by 0.2 per cent to 187.9 points owing to lower prices of raw rubber (9 per cent) and mesta (5 per cent). But prices moved up for niger seed (3 per cent) and groundnut seed (1 per cent).

Vanaspati higher

Among the Manufactured Products' group, the Food Products group index was up 0.2 per cent to 181.9 points due to higher prices of sunflower oil (6 per cent), hydrogenated vanaspati (4 per cent), sooji (3 per cent), gingelly oil (2 per cent), groundnut oil, maida and atta (1 per cent each).

Chemicals cheaper

The Chemicals and Chemical Products group index declined by 1.5 per cent to 192.9 points due to lower prices of epoxy resins (72 per cent), acid (7 per cent), liquid chlorine (4 per cent) and oxygen (1 per cent).

A fall in cement prices pushed up the Non-Metallic Mineral Products group index by 0.2 per cent to 188.3 points. The Base Metals Alloys and Metal Products group index rose by 0.1 per cent to 232.5 points due to higher prices of zinc (5 per cent) and zinc ingots and lead ingots (4 per cent each) The Government also revised the final inflation figure to 4.62 per cent for the week ended July 15 from provisional 4.52 per cent, while the WPI stood corrected at 203.9 points as against the earlier estimate of 203.7 points.

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