The Hindu Business Line : Inflation flares up on costlier fuel, power

THE annual wholesale price index (WPI)-based inflation rate touched a four-year high of 8.33 per cent for the week ended August 28, against an inflation of 8.17 per cent registered during the previous week.

According to the data released on Friday, the year-on-year inflation rose largely due to a rise in the index for fuel and power, even as the prices of primary articles went up marginally.

According to the data, the index of the primary articles' group, which has a 22 per cent weightage in the index, was up by 0.1 per cent to 192.9 points due to a rise in prices of both food and non-food articles. A 11-per cent hike in the price of naphtha and four per cent rise in furnace oil prices pushed up the index for the fuel, power, light and lubricants' group, which has a 14.23 per cent weightage in the WPI basket, by 0.6 per cent.

Among the primary articles, which carry a weight of 22.02 per cent in the WPI basket, the index of the food articles' group was up marginally by 0.1 per cent to 189 points due to higher prices for eggs (three per cent), fish-inland and arhar (two per cent each) and urad, barley and masur (one per cent each).

Prices, however, dipped in the case of bajra (three per cent), condiments and spices, maize and fruits and vegetables (one per cent each). The index of the non-food articles' group was up 0.2 per cent to 195.4 points

The food products' group index rose by 0.3 per cent to 175.6 points due to higher prices for rice bran oil, baby food and gur (two per cent each) and groundnut oil, salt, imported edible oil, maida, sugar, sunflower oil, gingelly oil and atta (one per cent each). However, prices dipped for unrefined oil and rape and mustard oil (two per cent each) and coffee powder, soyabean oil, butter, ghee, khandsari and cattle feed (one per cent each).

The index for the textiles' group was up 0.1 per cent to 138.8 points due to higher prices for hessian and sacking bags and hessian cloth (three per cent each) and polyster staple fibre and polyester yarn (one per cent each).

The index for the non-metallic mineral products' group rose sharply by 0.5 per cent to 156.5 points due to six per cent hike in the price of building bricks and two per cent in fire bricks. Base metals alloys and metal Products' group index also rose by 0.5 per cent to 207.6 points due to soaring prices of ferro manganese (25 per cent), copper bars and rods (12 per cent), bolts and nuts (seven per cent), steel wire ropes, steel wire and MS bars and rounds (five per cent each)

The index for the machinery and machine tools' group rose by 0.7 per cent to 137.9 points due to higher prices of jelly-filled telephone cables (27 per cent), enamelled copper wires (11 per cent) and tractor components and accessories (six per cent).

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