The Hindu Business Line : Inflation declines on fall in food prices

The dip in the year-on-year inflation was largely due to a fall in food prices and last year's high base, according to data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry on Friday.

The inflation rate was at 7.91 per cent during the corresponding week of the previous year. The WPI rose 0.1 per cent to 194.5 points.

On a disaggregated basis, the index of Primary Articles group rose 0.2 per cent to 192.5 points due to an increase in prices of non-food articles and minerals.

The Fuel, Power, Light, and Lubricants group index stood firm at the previous week's level of 304.2 points.

The index of the Manufactured Products group also remained unchanged at the previous week's level of 170.7 points, despite costlier food products, non-metallic minerals, machinery, and transport equipment.

In case of the Primary Articles group, the Food Articles group index declined by 0.5 per cent to 193.6 points due to lower prices of fruits and vegetables and fish-marine (two per cent each) and jowar (one per cent), even as barley prices went up by one per cent.

The index for Non-Food Articles group was up 0.3 per cent to 182 points due to higher prices of sunflower (four per cent), fodder (three per cent), safflower (two per cent), and groundnut seed and copra (one per cent each).

However, prices fell in the case of items such as raw silk, raw jute and skins (four per cent each), raw wool (three per cent) and cottonseed, linseed, niger seed, soyabean and gingelly seed (one per cent each).

The Minerals group index shot up by 16.5 per cent to 291.3 points due to surge in prices of fire clay (34 per cent), iron ore (23 per cent), china clay (14 per cent), flourite (12 per cent), magnesite (11 per cent) and steatite (five per cent).

Prices, however, declined for barytes (48 per cent) and feldspar (14 per cent).

In case of the Manufactured Products group, the Food Products group index rose by 0.6 per cent to 177.5 points due to higher prices of sugar (two per cent), and rape and mustard oil and coconut oil (one per cent each).

The Textiles group index fell 0.9 per cent to 128.2 points due to a fall in the prices of cotton yarn-hanks (four per cent), viscose staple fibre (two per cent) and texturised yarn, and acrylic yarn and hessian cloth (one per cent each).

A marginal increase in cement prices pushed up Non-Metallic Mineral Products group index by 0.1 per cent to 166.9 points.

The index for Machinery and Machine Tools group was up 0.1 per cent to 146.3 points due to a marginal increase in the prices of complete engines.

The Transport Equipment and Parts group index rose 0.4 per cent to 159.7 points owing to higher prices of bicycles (three per cent), trekker (two per cent), and car chassis and jeeps (one per cent each).

The final inflation stood corrected at 5.25 per cent in the week ended May 28, compared to the provisional estimate of 5.20 per cent, while WPI was revised up to 192.3 points against the provisional level of 192.2 points.

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