The Hindu Business Line : Inflation slows on cheaper food items

The annual wholesale price index-based inflation rose 3.24 per cent during the week ending April 8, lower than the previous week's annual rise of 3.51 per cent. A Bloomberg report said the rate was the lowest since December 14, 2002.

The lower increase in the year-on-year inflation rate was mainly on account of cheaper food items including vegetables and wheat, according to data released today by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

WPI rises

The WPI ended the latest reported week at 197.6 points, up from 191.4 points during the corresponding period last year. The inflation rate was higher at 5.86 per cent during the corresponding period of the previous year.

The Government revised downward the inflation figure to 3.81 per cent for the week ended February 11 from provisional 4.02 per cent, while WPI stood corrected at 196.2 points from the earlier estimate of 196.6 points.

PRIMARY ARTICLES DOWN

On a disaggregated basis, the primary articles group index fell by 0.3 per cent to 195.1 points due to cheaper food items. It was 187.1 points a year ago.

The index for food articles group declined by 0.6 per cent to 197.9 points due to lower prices of eggs (20 per cent), vegetables and wheat (3 per cent each), pork, bajra, fruits and fish-inland (1 per cent each).

The index for non-food articles group index rose by 0.2 per cent to 175.2 points, even as fodder became cheaper by 1 per cent. However, prices of raw cotton rose by 2 per cent.

Unchanged

The Fuel, power, light and lubricants group index remained unchanged at the previous week's level of 316.7 points. It was 292.5 points in the year-ago period. The Manufactured products group index was up by 0.1 per cent to 171.8 points due to increase in prices of food products, chemicals, non-metallic minerals and base metals. The index was 170.4 points in the year-ago period.

The Chemicals and chemical products group index was up by 0.1 per cent to 189 points due to higher prices of powder other than vitamins (5 per cent), calcium ammonium nitrate n-content (3 per cent), liquid nitrogen (2 per cent) and soda ash (1 per cent), but organic pigments became cheaper by 4 per cent.

RISE IN CEMENT

The Non-metallic mineral products group index was up by 1 per cent to 186.8 points due to higher prices of asbestos cement corrugated sheets (3 per cent) and cement (1 per cent).

Base metals alloys and metal products group index was up by 0.5 per cent to 208.8 points due to higher prices of zinc (15 per cent), steel sheets, plates and strips (9 per cent each), other iron steel (5 per cent), basic pig iron (3 per cent each) and zinc ingots (1 per cent).

However, tin boxes/containers became cheaper by 4 per cent, while bolts and nuts by 1 per cent.

The transport equipment and parts group fell by 0.2 per cent to 160.1 points due to the one per cent fall in car chassis prices.