The Hindu Business Line : Cheaper fuel pulls down inflation rate to 8.9%

The Fuel, Power, Light and Lubricants index declined 0.9 per cent due to cheaper light diesel oil (11 per cent), furnace oil (9 per cent), aviation turbine fuel (5 per cent) and naphtha (4 per cent).

Our Bureau

New Delhi, Nov 20 The annual Wholesale Price Index-based inflation rose 8.9 per cent during the week ended November 8, marginally below the previous week’s annual rise of 8.98 per cent, government data showed on Thursday. The dip in the headline inflation rate, which came about despite a sharp surge in the year-on-year inflation in the Primary Articles group, was mainly on account of a dip in inflation levels in case of the fuels group.

The annual inflation rate was 3.20 per cent during the corresponding week of the previous year. The official WPI for ‘All Commodities’ for the latest reported week declined by 0.2 per cent to 235 points, from 235.5 points for the previous week, according to the data.

Primary articles

On a disaggregated basis, the Primary Articles group index rose 0.4 per cent as the index for the ‘Food Articles’ group rose 0.1 per cent due to higher inflation in case of fruits and vegetables, masur, arhar, barley, gram and bajra (1 per cent each). However, the price levels for jowar (7 per cent), tea (6 per cent) and maize (3 per cent) declined. The index for ’Non-Food Articles’ group rose by 1.1 per cent due to higher prices of logs and timber (36 per cent), raw silk (13 per cent) and groundnut seed (1 per cent).

Mineral group

The index for the ‘Minerals’ group rose by 0.7 per cent due to higher inflation in case of phosphorite (48 per cent), barytes (42 per cent) and fluorite (1 per cent). However, the prices of gypsum (31 per cent) and fire clay (14 per cent) declined.

The annual rate of inflation, calculated on point-to-point basis, for the Primary Articles group stood at 11.66 per cent for the latest reported week as compared to 11.01 per cent points in the previous week. The annual rate of inflation for ‘Food Articles’ stood at 9.31 per cent points for the latest week as compared to 9.07 per cent points in the previous week.

The Fuel, Power, Light and Lubricants index declined by 0.9 per cent due to lower inflation in case of light diesel oil (11 per cent), furnace oil (9 per cent), aviation turbine fuel (5 per cent) and naphtha (4 per cent).

However, the prices of bitumen (1 per cent) moved up.

Manufactured products

The Manufactured Products group index declined by 0.2 per cent as the index for ’Food Products’ group dipped by 0.4 per cent due to lower price levels in case of oil cakes and imported edible oil (2 per cent each) and gur, rice bran oil and groundnut oil (1 per cent each).

The index for ‘Textiles’ group rose by 0.5 per cent due to higher price levels of miscellaneous cotton cloth (6 per cent), cotton yarn-cones (4 per cent) and cotton yarn-hanks (1 per cent). However, the inflation in case of texturised yarn (7 per cent) and hessian and sacking bags, polyster staple fibre and hessian cloth (2 per cent each) declined.

Metal products

The index for ‘Base Metals Alloys and Metal Products’ group declined by 0.4 per cent due to lower prices of bright bars (7 per cent), zinc ingots (3 per cent) and lead ingots and bars and rods (2 per cent each). However, the prices of ferro-manganese (1 per cent) moved up. The index for ‘Machinery and Machine Tools’ group rose by 0.1 per cent due to higher prices of fluorescent tubes (12 per cent) and GLS lamps (4 per cent).

For the week ended September 13, the final WPI stood revised to 241.7 points, as compared to the provisional estimate of 241.1 points and the annual rate of inflation based on final index, calculated on point to point basis, stood at 12.42 per cent as compared to 12.14 per cent points reported provisionally.

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