The Hindu Business Line : Inflation up on costlier food, manufactured items

At a glance
Primary Articles' group index up 0.6 per cent
Fuel, power, light, lubricants group index unchanged
Food Products group index down by 0.1 per cent

New Delhi , Oct. 6

The annual wholesale price index-based inflation rose 4.77 per cent during the week ended September 23, higher than the previous week's annual rise of 4.56 per cent.

The spurt in the year-on-year inflation rate was mainly due to an increase in food, mineral and manufactured product prices, Government data showed on Friday.

During the latest reported week, the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) for all commodities was up 0.1 per cent to 206.6 points. The WPI was at 197.2 points during the corresponding week a year ago. The inflation rate was at 4.34 per cent during the corresponding week of the previous year.

Food, non-food rise

On a disaggregated basis, the Primary Articles' group index was up 0.6 per cent at 212.30 points due to increase in prices of food, non-food and minerals. The Fuel, Power, Light and Lubricants group index remained unchanged at the previous week's level of 324.9 points. The Manufactured Products group index was up 0.1 per cent to 178.3 points as textiles, rubber, chemicals, non-metallic mineral and basic metals prices increased.

Among the Primary Articles' group, the Food Articles' group index rose 0.4 per cent to 215.1 points due to increase in prices of urad (7 per cent), gram and mutton (6 per cent each), moong (5 per cent), condiments and spices and ragi (2 per cent each), wheat, masur, milk and fish-inland (1 per cent each). However, prices declined for fish-marine (6 per cent), bajra (4 per cent), arhar (3 per cent), vegetables and maize (2 per cent each) and barley (1 per cent). The Non-Food Articles' group index rose 0.4 per cent to 188.4 points as prices rose for gingelly seed (9 per cent), castor seed (6 per cent), rape and tobacco (1 per cent each), even as raw silk became cheaper by two per cent.

The Minerals group index shot up by 4.7 per cent to 426.2 points due to spurt in prices of felspar (17 per cent), fire clay (12 per cent) and iron ore (6 per cent). However, there was a dip in prices of barites (15 per cent), steatite (12 per cent), magnesite (6 per cent), china clay (3 per cent) and manganese ore (2 per cent).

Edible oil down

Among the Manufactured Products' group, the Food Products group index declined by 0.1 per cent to 181.7 points due to lower prices of khandsari and imported edible oil (2 per cent each), gingelly oil, oil cakes, rice bran oil and ghee (1 per cent each). However, prices moved up for gur (6 per cent), sooji (3 per cent), maida (2 per cent) and atta (1 per cent).

A one per cent rise in prices of caustic soda and acid pushed up the Chemicals and Chemical Products group index by 0.1 per cent to 193 points.

An increase in cement prices pushed up the Non-Metallic Mineral Products group index by 0.3 per cent to 189.8 points. The Base Metals Alloys and Metal Products group index increased by 0.4 per cent to 233.9 points due to higher prices of brass sheets and strips (27 per cent), alloy stainless steel (22 per cent), other aluminium material (14 per cent), nickel alloy (12 per cent), aluminium sheets and strips (9 per cent), alloy steel casting (6 per cent) and lead ingots (2 per cent).

The index for Machinery and Machine Tools group fell by 0.1 per cent to 152.5 points due to lower prices of ring spinning and doubling frames and textile machinery parts (2 per cent each) and electrolytic capacitors (1 per cent).

The Government also revised the final inflation figure for the week ended July 29 to 4.71 per cent from the provisional 4.61 per cent, while the WPI stood corrected at 204.3 points as against the earlier estimate of 204.1 points.