The Hindu Business Line : Inflation rate up on costlier manufactured items

Up and down
Gram, moong, urad declined 2%, while coffee rose 4%.
Cycle tyres (6%) and PVC pipes and tubings (5%) increased.
Base metals was down on lower zinc, zinc ingot prices.

Our Bureau

New Delhi, Jan. 4 The annual Wholesale Price Index-based inflation rose 3.50 per cent during the week ended December 22, marginally higher than the previous week’s annual rise of 3.45 per cent, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry data showed on Friday.

The increase in the year-on-year inflation rate was primarily on account of higher prices of some manufactured products, including bread and buns and some rubber and plastic products, and fuel items.

During the latest reported week, the index for all commodities rose to 215.9 points, from 215.6 points a week earlier. The wholesale price based index stood at 5.78 per cent in the corresponding week a year ago.

Food prices drop

On a disaggregated basis, the Primary Articles’ group index declined by 0.1 per cent as the index for Food Articles declined marginally due to lower prices of gram, moong and urad (2 per cent each) and barley, ragi and rice (1 per cent each). However, the prices of coffee (4 per cent) moved up. The index for Non-Food Articles declined by 0.3 per cent due to lower prices of niger seed (26 per cent) and rape and mustard seed (1 per cent).

The Fuel, Power, Light and Lubricants group index rose by 0.5 per cent due to higher prices of furnace oil (5 per cent), bitumen (4 per cent) and naphtha (3 per cent).

The Manufactured Products group rose by 0.1 per cent as the index for Food Products group rose by 0.5 per cent due to higher prices of bread and buns (7 per cent), bran (all kinds) (4 per cent), butter and cotton seed oil (2 per cent each) and maida, rice bran oil, coconut oil, oil cakes and atta (1 per cent each).

Textiles cheaper

The index for Rubber Plastic Products group rose by 1.0 per cent due to higher prices of cycle tyres (6 per cent) and PVC pipes and tubings (5 per cent).

The index for the Textiles group declined by 0.4 per cent due to lower prices of polyester staple fibre (4 per cent), hessian cloth (2 per cent) and tyre cord fabric and hessian and sacking bags (1 per cent each). However, the prices of cotton grey cloth and canvas (3 per cent) moved up.

The index for the Chemicals and Chemical Products’ group declined by 0.05 per cent due to lower prices of oxygen gas in cylinder (6 per cent). The index for Non-Metallic Mineral Products’ group rose by 0.1 per cent due to higher prices of cement (0.1 per cent).

The index for Base Metals Alloys and Metal Products’ group declined marginally due to lower prices of zinc (5 per cent) and zinc ingots (2 per cent). The index for Transport Equipment and Parts group rose by 0.2 per cent due to higher prices of body manufactured for buses (12 per cent).

The final inflation figure was revised to 3.11 per cent for the week ended October 27 against the provisional figure of 2.97 per cent as WPI finally stood at 215.4 points compared to earlier estimate of 215.1 points.