The Hindu Business Line : Inflation falls on lower food prices

THE annual wholesale price index-based inflation fell to 4.09 per cent during the week ended July 2, from the previous week's 4.14 per cent. The fall in the year-on-year inflation rate was mainly on account of lower food prices, according to data released here on Friday today by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. The inflation rate was at 7.08 per cent during the corresponding week of the previous year. The fall in the year-on-year inflation rate was mainly on account of lower food prices, according to data released here on Friday by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

During the latest reported week, WPI fell by 0.2 per cent to 193.6 points despite fuel prices turning dearer. The index was at 186 points a year ago.

On a disaggregated basis, the Primary Articles' group index fell by 1.3 per cent to 188.9 points due to a fall in the price of food and non-food products. The index for Fuel, Power, Light and Lubricants' group index rose 0.5 per cent to 303.9 points due to costlier naphtha (six per cent), light diesel oil (five per cent) and furnace oil (four per cent).

The Manufactured Products' group index remained unchanged at the previous week's level of 170.6 points, despite costlier food products, beverages tobacco, chemicals, machinery and transport equipment.

Among the Primary Articles, the index for Food Articles' group was down 1.7 per cent to 190.7 points due to cheaper fruits and vegetables (eight per cent) and barley and wheat (one per cent each). However, prices increased in the case of eggs, poultry chicken, arhar and urad (two per cent each) and jowar, maize, moong, pork, tea, condiments and spices and masur (one per cent each).

Non-Food Articles' group index declined by 0.3 per cent to 179.8 points due to lower prices of logs and timber (nine per cent), copra (three per cent) and gingelly seed (one per cent), even as prices rose for safflower (eight per cent), raw rubber (two per cent) and raw tobacco, linseed, raw jute, raw silk and fodder (one per cent each).

Among the Manufactured Products' group index, the Food Products' group index rose by 0.2 per cent to 175.4 points due to costlier sooji-rawa (four per cent), maida and atta (two per cent each) and sunflower oil, hydrogenated vanaspati, gingelly oil, coconut oil and sugar (one per cent each), while there was one per cent dip in the price of oil cakes and rice bran oil.

The index for Beverages Tobacco and Tobacco Products' group rose marginally to 222.3 per cent due to one per cent hike in the prices of beer and alcohol. The Chemicals and Chemical Products' group index was up 0.1 per cent to 186.3 points due to higher prices of benzene (five per cent) and purified terephthalic acid (four per cent). But caustic soda became cheaper by one per cent.

The index for Machinery and Machine Tools' group rose by 0.2 per cent to 146.3 points due to six per cent rise each in the prices of power driven pumps and electric motors. Transport Equipment and Parts' group index was up 0.1 per cent to 159.1 points owing to marginal increase in the prices of truck chassis and bus chassis.

The index for Textiles' group declined by 0.6 per cent to 129.6 points due to lower prices of cotton yarn-cones (four per cent) and hessian cloth and hessian and sacking bags (one per cent each), while there was five per cent increase in the price of texturised yarn.

The Non-Metallic Mineral Products' group index fell by 0.4 per cent to 166.9 points due to one per cent fall in the price of cement.

The final inflation was revised upwards to 5.67 per cent during the week ended May 7 as compared to the provisional estimate of 5.61 per cent, while WPI stood corrected at 192.1 points in the first week of May against the provisional level of 192 points.

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