The Hindu Business Line : Inflation rate crosses 5% as food items turn dearer

Movements
Index for food articles group rises 1.7%
That for non-food up by 0.8% on higher prices.
Textiles, chemicals up; basic metals, alloys decline.

Our Bureau

New Delhi, March 7 The annual Wholesale Price Index-based inflation breached the 5 per cent mark to hit a nine-month high of 5.02 per cent during the week ended February 23, higher than the previous week’s annual rise of 4.78 per cent, Government data showed on Friday.

The spurt in the year-on-year inflation rate was mainly driven by higher prices of food items such as fruits, vegetables, milk and cereals along with some manufactured goods. The inflation rate was recorded at 6.20 per cent during the corresponding period a year ago.

On a disaggregated basis, the primary articles group index rose by 1.4 per cent as the index for food articles group rose by 1.7 per cent due to higher prices of fish-marine (6 per cent), mutton (5 per cent), fruits and vegetables (4 per cent), urad, milk and ragi (2 per cent each) and gram (1 per cent). However, the prices of arhar (4 per cent) and moong (1 per cent) declined.

Non-food articles

The index for non-food articles group rose by 0.8 per cent due to higher prices of sunflower (11 per cent), castor seed (6 per cent), raw rubber and copra (2 per cent each) and raw tobacco and raw cotton (1 per cent each). However, the prices of raw jute (1 per cent) declined.

The fuel, power, light and lubricants group index remained unchanged at its previous week’s level of 336.9 points.

The manufactured products group index rose 0.1 per cent as the index for food products group rose by 0.3 per cent due to higher prices of sunflower oil (8 per cent), imported edible oil (5 per cent), hydrogenated vanaspati (4 per cent), gingelly oil (3 per cent), rice bran oil and cotton seed oil (2 per cent each) and coconut oil, gur, groundnut oil and rape and mustard oil (1 per cent each).

However, the prices of khandsari (2 per cent) and ghee (1 per cent) declined. The index for textiles group rose by 0.4 per cent due to higher prices of cotton yarn-cones, cotton yarn-hanks, synthetic yarn and nylon filament yarn (1 per cent each). However, the prices of polyester staple fibre (2 per cent) declined.

Chemical group

The index for chemicals and chemical products group rose by 0.1 per cent due to higher prices of sulpha methoxozole (6 per cent), purified terephthalic acid and benzene (3 per cent each) and syrup and acid (all kinds) (1 per cent each). However, the prices of oxygen (1 per cent) declined. The index for basic metals, alloys and metal products group declined by 0.4 per cent due to lower prices of nickel alloy (16 per cent), alloy stainless steel (14 per cent) and alloy steel casting (5 per cent).

However, the prices of lead ingots (4 per cent) and pipes and tubes and zinc ingots (1 per cent each) moved up. The index for machinery and machine tools group rose by 0.1 per cent due to higher prices of sewing machines (9 per cent).

The final WPI for the week ended December 29 stood revised at 216.7 as compared to 216 points and the annual rate of inflation based on the final index, calculated on a point-to-point basis, stood at 3.83 per cent as compared to 3.50 per cent points reported provisionally.

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