The Hindu Business Line : Inflation tops 5 pc on costlier food, energy

Moving up
Rubber group index up on rise in cycle tubes, tyres price.
5 pc spurt in safety matches; 2 pc rise in bicycles.
Marginal rise in cotton yarn, jute rates.

New Delhi , Oct. 13

The annual wholesale price index-based inflation rose 5.16 per cent during the week ended September 30, higher than the previous week's annual rise of 4.77 per cent. The increase in the year-on-year inflation rate follows an across-the-board increase in food, energy and manufactured product prices, the Government data showed on Friday.

Non-foods dearer

During the latest reported week, the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) for all commodities rose by 0.6 per cent to 207.8 points. The index was at 197.6 points during the corresponding week last year. The annual inflation rate was at 4.61 per cent during the corresponding week of the previous year.

On a disaggregated basis, the Primary Articles' group index was up marginally to 212.4 points due to rise in prices of food and non-food items. The index was at 196.8 points a year ago. The Fuel, Power, Light and Lubricants group index shot up 1.2 per cent to 328.9 points due to costlier electricity (4 per cent), naphtha (2 per cent) and bitumen (1 per cent). The index was 313.1 points a year ago. The Manufactured Products group index was up 0.5 per cent to 179.2 points due to rise in prices of food products, metals textiles, paper, rubber, chemicals, machinery and transport equipment. The index was at 172.1 points a year ago.

Eggs higher

Among the Primary Articles' group, the Food Articles' group index rose 0.3 per cent to 215.7 points due to higher prices of eggs (3 per cent), gram and bajra (2 per cent each), fruits and vegetables, urad and arhar (1 per cent each). However, prices declined for fish-marine (4 per cent), moong, maize, condiments and spices (1 per cent each).

The Non-Food Articles' group index declined 0.6 per cent to 187.2 points due to lower prices of raw jute and raw cotton (3 per cent each) and nigerseed and copra (1 per cent each), but mesta became costlier by 1 per cent.

Among the Manufactured Products' group, the Food Products group index rose 0.6 per cent to 182.8 points due to increase in prices of coconut oil (4 per cent), ghee and oil cakes (3 per cent each), groundnut oil (2 per cent), rape and mustard oil and gingelly oil (1 per cent each). However, prices fell for gur (4 per cent), imported edible oil (2 per cent) and rice bran oil and unrefined oil (1 per cent each).

A marginal increase in prices of cotton yarn, jute, hemp and mesta textiles pushed up the Textiles group index by 0.1 per cent to 133.9 points.

The Government revised the final inflation figure to 5.08 per cent for the week ended August 5 from provisional 4.82 per cent, while WPI stood corrected at 204.8 points as compared to the earlier estimate of 204.3 points.