Inflation Inches Up To 2.47%

The wholesale price index (WPI) based inflation went up marginally to 2.47 per cent for the week ended November 10. Inflation has gone up after falling for eight consecutive weeks, due to higher vegetable and fuel prices and also on account of a dip in inflation in the corresponding week last year.

The WPI based inflation level was 2.4 per cent in the previous week and 7.48 per cent in the corresponding week last year. The inflation based on the final WPI for the week ended September 15 was 4.60 per cent, as against 4.93 per cent reported on the basis of the provisional index.

At a disaggregated level, the index for the major group of 'primary articles' prices fell by 0.8 per cent, while that for 'fuel, power, light and lubricants' rose by 0.5 per cent during the week. The index for the third major group of 'manufactured products' remained unchanged at the previous week's level.

Within the primary articles group, the index for the sub-group of minerals went up by 1 per cent, the index for food articles fell by 0.9 per cent and that for non-food articles fell by 0.4 per cent during the week. Items whose prices rose sharply include limestone, up 7 per cent, magnesite, down 6 per cent and inland fish, down 8 per cent.

The index for the fuels group rose on account of a 7 per cent rise in light diesel oil prices and a 3 per cent rise in prices of high speed diesel oil prices. In the same group, prices of bitumen fell by 2 per cent over the week.

While the index for manufactured products remained unchanged over the week, prices of certain items fluctuated sharply. A nine per cent hike in prices of timber planks pushed up the index for the sub-group of 'wood and wood products' by 4.5 per cent. Oxygen prices rose by 14 per cent, pushing up the 'chemicals and chemical products' index by 0.1 per cent, while a 6 per cent hike in railway sleeper prices and a 3 per cent increase in bottle prices pushed up the non-metallic mineral products by 0.5 per cent.

Newsprint prices fell by 5 per cent, pushing down the index for 'paper and paper products' by 0.9 per cent.