The Hindu Business Line : Decline in energy prices pegs inflation lower

Up & down
Prices of fruits, eggs, spices increased.
Raw cotton prices down by 2 per cent.
Fuel, Power group index declined on lower naphtha and furnace oil prices.
Base metals index down marginally.

New Delhi , Sept. 15

The annual wholesale price index-based inflation rose 4.78 per cent during the week ended September 2, lower than the previous week's annual rise of 5.01 per cent. A decline in energy prices was primarily responsible for the dip in the year-on-year inflation rate, Government data showed on Friday.

The inflation rate was 3.64 per cent during the corresponding week of the previous year. During the latest reported week, the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) for all commodities ended at 206 points. The WPI was at 196.6 points during the corresponding week a year ago.

On a disaggregated basis, the Primary Articles' group index was up 1.4 per cent to 208.6 points due to increase in prices of food and non-food items. The index was 196.5 points a year ago.

The Fuel, Power, Light and Lubricants group index declined 0.5 per cent to 326.6 points due to lower prices of naphtha (6 per cent) and furnace oil (4 per cent). The index was 308.3 points a year ago.

Manufactured items up

The Manufactured Products group index rose 0.3 per cent to 178.2 points due to rise in prices of food products, textiles, paper, rubber, chemicals, cement and machinery. The index was 171.7 points in the year ago period.

Among the Primary Articles' group, the Food Articles' group index rose 1.6 per cent to 210.4 points due to an increase in prices of fruits (13.1 per cent), eggs, condiments and spices, bajra and maize (2 per cent each), wheat, moong and gram (1 per cent each) and vegetables (0.2 per cent). But jowar became cheaper by one per cent. The Non-Food Articles group index increased by 0.9 per cent to 188.3 points due to rise in prices of logs and timber (20 per cent), raw silk (7 per cent), gingelly seed (2 per cent), groundnut seed, linseed, raw tobacco, rape and mustard seed and castor seed (1 per cent each). But raw cotton prices declined by two per cent.

Food Products up

Among the Manufactured Products' group, the Food Products' group index rose 0.6 per cent to 181.5 points due to higher prices of bran (13 per cent), sooji (6 per cent), atta (3 per cent), maida, oil cakes and gur (2 per cent each), coconut oil, rape and mustard oil and khandsari (1 per cent each). Textiles group index was up 1.1 per cent to 132.9 points owing to an increase in the prices of texturised yarn and polyster yarn (5 per cent each), polyster staple fibre (4 per cent), hessian and sacking bags and viscose staple fibre (2 per cent each), hessian cloth and synthetic yarn (1 per cent each), but nylon filament yarn prices declined by one per cent. A two per cent increase in prices of newspaper pushed up the Paper and Paper Products group index by 0.3 per cent to 189.7 points.

The Rubber and Plastic Products group index was up 0.1 per cent to 145.2 points due to a two per cent increase in prices of cycle tyres. The Chemicals and Chemical Products group index moved up by 0.1 per cent to 195.8 points due to higher prices of synthetic resins (7 per cent), liquid nitrogen (6 per cent) and resins (3 per cent). A marginal increase in cement prices pushed up the Non-Metallic Mineral Products group index by 0.1 per cent to 188.6 points.

Metals down

The Base Metals Alloys and Metal Products' group index was down marginally to 232.2 points due to lower prices of zinc, basic pig iron, foundry pig iron (1 per cent each). But, prices moved up for brass sheets and strips (13 per cent) and other iron steel (2 per cent). The Machinery and Machine Tools group index was up 0.3 per cent to 152.9 points due to higher prices of airconditioners (21 per cent) electric motors (7 per cent) and batteries (2 per cent).

The Government also revised the final inflation figure to 4.83 per cent for the week ended July 8 from provisional 4.68 per cent while the WPI stood corrected at 203.9 points as against the earlier estimate of 203.6 points.

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