The Hindu Business Line : Inflation up on costlier manufactured items

Price chart
The Primary Articles group index down 1.3 per cent to 203 points.
The Fuel, Power, Light and Lubricant group index fell marginally to 326.3 points.
The Manufactured Products group index rose 0.3 per cent to 176 points.

New Delhi , July 14

The annual wholesale price index-based inflation rose 4.96 per cent during the week ended July 1, higher than the previous week's annual rise of 4.84 per cent. The rise in the year-on-year inflation was mainly on account of higher manufactured product prices, including costlier iron and steel, chemicals and textile products, according to Government data released on Friday.

Primary articles down

The wholesale price index (WPI) for `all commodities' ended the latest reported week at 203.3 points. The index was 193.7 points during the corresponding week a year ago. The inflation rate was at 4.14 per cent during the corresponding week of the previous year.

On a disaggregated basis, the Primary Articles group index was down 1.3 per cent to 203 points. The index was 189.1 points a year ago.

The Fuel, Power, Light and Lubricant group index was down marginally to 326.3 points (304 points). The heavyweightManufactured Products group index rose 0.3 per cent to 176 points due to costlier metals, chemicals, textiles, paper and transport parts.

The index was 170.6 points during the corresponding week last year.

Among the Primary Articles' group, the index for Food Articles was down 1.9 per cent due to fall in prices of fruits (15 per cent), gram and masur (2 per cent each), vegetables, milk, tea and bajra (1 per cent each).

The Non-Food Articles group index was up 0.1 per cent to 183.4 points due to higher prices of gingelly seed (8 per cent), raw rubber (2 per cent), raw cotton and cottonseed (1 per cent each). But prices rose for soyabean (5 per cent), copra (4 per cent) and castor seed (1 per cent).

Among the Manufactured Products' group, the index for Food Products group index declined 0.1 per cent to 179.2 points due to fall in prices of coconut oil (2 per cent), khandasri and gingelly oil (1 per cent each), but imported edible oil prices rose 1 per cent.

Yarn costly

The Textiles group index was up by 0.1 per cent to 130.9 points due to higher prices of texturised yarn (4 per cent), hessian and sacking bags and tyre cord fabric (1 per cent each), even as hessian cloth became cheaper by 1 per cent. The Base Metals, Alloys and Metal Products group index shot up by 1.7 per cent to 225.8 points due to increase in prices of heavy light structurals (13 per cent), heavy rails (7 per cent), other iron steel, angles, channels and sections, bars and rods (5 per cent each), steel sheets, plates and strips, pipes and tubes (2 per cent), basic pig iron and foundry pig iron (1 per cent each). However, zinc became cheaper by 2 per cent. A two per cent increase in scooter prices pushed up the Transport Equipment and Parts group index by 0.1 per cent to 161.1 points.

The final inflation figure for the week ended May 6 was revised to 4.37 per cent from the provisional 3.96 per cent.