The Hindu Business Line : Inflation up on costlier manufactured items

The increase in the year-on-year inflation was largely due to a spurt in prices of food items, energy and manufactured product, according to data released on Friday by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. The inflation rate was at 7.61 per cent during the corresponding week of the previous year.

The WPI rose by 0.3 per cent to 194.4 points, with increase in the indices of all the major commodity groups. The index was at 186.6 points a year ago. According to the data, the final inflation and WPI during the week ended May 21 stood unchanged at their respective provisional levels of 5.38 per cent and 192 points.

On a disaggregated basis, the Primary Articles' group index rose by 0.9 per cent to 192.1 points due to increase in prices of both food and non-food articles. The fuel, power, light and lubricants group index was up by 0.1 per cent to 304.2 points as prices of furnace oil increased by two per cent and naphtha by one per cent. The heavy-weighted manufactured products' group index rose by 0.1 per cent to 170.7 points due to costlier food products and base metals.

In case of the Primary Articles' group, the index for food articles' group shot up by 1.1 per cent to 194.5 points owing to a sharp increase in prices of vegetables (10 per cent), masur (five per cent), gram, jowar, maize and fruits (two per cent each) and eggs and barley (one per cent each). However, prices fell for poultry chicken (six per cent), fish-marine (four per cent), condiments and spices (two per cent) and moong (one per cent).

The Non-Food Articles' group index was up by 0.4 per cent to 181.4 points due to higher prices of fodder (10 per cent), gingelly seed (five per cent), raw rubber and raw silk (four per cent each), niger seed (three per cent) and raw cotton (one per cent). But prices declined for raw jute (five per cent), linseed (four per cent) and raw tobacco and skins (one per cent each).

In case of the Manufactured Products' group, the index for food products' group was up by 0.2 per cent to 176.5 points owing to rise in prices of rice bran oil (four per cent), khandsari (three per cent), groundnut oil (two per cent) and sunflower oil (one per cent), even as butter became cheaper by one per cent.

The Chemical and Chemical Products' group index fell by 0.1 per cent to 186.3 points due to lower prices of epoxy resins (19 per cent), PVC resins (10 per cent), ampicillin trihydrate (seven per cent) and polystyrene (four per cent). However, prices moved up for carbon black (five per cent) and caustic soda (four per cent). A three per cent increase in prices of pipes and tubes pushed up the Base Metals Alloys and Metal Products' group index by 0.1 per cent to 220.7 points. The Machinery and Machine Tools' group index declined by 0.1 per cent to 146.2 points due to lower prices of roller bearings (10 per cent) and TV sets (two per cent).

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