The Hindu Business Line : Costlier manufactured items force inflation rate to top 4%

Snapshot
Primary articles group index rose by 0.4%,
as index for food articles group surged by 0.2%
The fuel, power, light and lubricants group
index remained unchanged.

Our Bureau

New Delhi, Feb. 8 The annual Wholesale Price Index-based inflation rose 4.11 per cent during the week ended January 26, higher than the previous week’s annual rise of 3.93 per cent.

The surge in the year-on-year inflation rate was mainly on account of higher prices of primary products, including food articles and minerals, besides some manufactured items, government data showed on Friday.

The annual inflation rate was 6.69 per cent during the corresponding week of the previous year. During the latest reported week, the official WPI for ‘all commodities’ rose by 0.2 per cent to 217.6 points, from 217.1 points during the previous week.

Primary articles

On a disaggregated basis, the primary articles group index rose by 0.4 per cent as the index for the food articles group surged by 0.2 per cent due to higher prices of maize (3 per cent) and moong, wheat, condiments and spices, and bajra (1 per cent each). However, the prices of barley (1 per cent) declined.

The index for non-food articles’ group rose by 0.5 per cent due to higher prices of raw cotton (2 per cent) and castor seed and groundnut seed (1 per cent each). However, the prices of copra (2 per cent) declined.

The index for the minerals group rose by 2.1 per cent due to higher prices of gypsum (62 per cent), limestone (14 per cent), fireclay (10 per cent) and iron ore (1per cent). However, the prices of fluorite (7 per cent) and steatite (4 per cent) declined.

Fuel & power

The fuel, power, light and lubricants group index remained unchanged at its previous week’s level of 334.4 points.

The manufactured products group index rose by 0.3 per cent as the index for the food products’ group rose by 0.2 per cent due to higher prices of salt (5 per cent), gingelly oil, unblended black tea leaf gr, and bread and buns (3 per cent each) and cattle feed, rape and mustard oil and gur (1 per cent each).

However, the prices of imported edible oil and khandsari (2 per cent each) and cotton seed oil and rice bran oil (1 per cent each) declined.

The index for textiles group declined by 0.1 per cent due to lower prices of viscose staple fibre (1 per cent). The index for paper and paper products group rose by 0.1 per cent due to marginal increase in the prices of newsprint. The index for leather and leather products group declined by 1.7 per cent for the previous week due to lower prices of footwear western type (2 per cent).

Chemicals & metals

The index for chemicals and chemical products group rose by 0.7 per cent due to higher prices of carbon black (16 per cent), soda ash (sodium carbonate) (10 per cent), toilet soap and synthetic rubber (4 per cent each), acid (all kinds) (2 per cent) and caustic soda (sodium hydroxide) (1 per cent).

The index for basic metals alloys and metal products group declined by 0.2 per cent for the previous week due to lower prices of brass sheets and strips (12 per cent), zinc (4 per cent), lead ingots (2 per cent), and pipes and tubes and zinc ingots (1 per cent each). The index for transport equipment and parts group rose by 2.5 per cent for the previous week due to higher prices of truck chassis (diesel) (10 per cent) and bus chassis (diesel) (6 per cent).

The final index for the week ended December 1 stood revised at 216.3 points, as compared to 216 points reported provisionally, while the annual rate of inflation based on final index, calculated on point-to-point basis, stood revised at 3.89 per cent as compared to 3.75 per cent points reported earlier.

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