CPI inflation for industrial workers rises to 5.24 pc in December

Retail inflation for industrial workers increased to 5.24 per cent in December 2018 as compared to 4 per cent in the year-ago period.

"The inflation measured by monthly CPI-IW (consumer price index-industrial workers) stood at 5.24 per cent for December 2018 as compared to 4.86 per cent for the previous month and 4 per cent during December 2017," a labour ministry statement said.

According to the statement, the food inflation in December stood at (-) 0.96 per cent against (-) 1.57 per cent in November and 4.32 per cent in the year-ago month.

The All-India CPI-IW for December declined by 1 point and pegged at 301. On 1-month percentage change, it dropped by (-) 0.33 per cent between November-December 2018 when compared with the fall of (-) 0.69 per cent for the corresponding months of 2017.

It said the maximum downward pressure to the change in current index came from the food group, contributing (-) 1.38 percentage points to the total change.

Onion, banana, coconut, lemon, brinjal, cabbage, chillies green, carrot, cauliflower, french bean, spinach, peas, potato, radish, tomato, sugar, cooking gas, petrol, etc are responsible for the decline in index.

However, it said the decline was checked by fish, poultry (chicken), tea (readymade), ESI (Employees' State Insurance) premium, repair charges (bicycle), putting upward pressure on the index.

Centre wise, Munger Jamalpur, Tripura and Doom-Dooma Tinsukia reported the maximum drop of (6 points each) followed by Ranchi Hatia, Lucknow and Kanpur (5 points each).

Among others, 4 points fall was observed in 3 centres, 3 points in 7 centres, 2 points in 16 centres and 1 point in 13 centres.

On the contrary, Salem recorded a maximum increase of 6 points followed by Jalpaiguri (5 points). Among others, 2 points increase was observed in 4 centres and 1 point in 12 centres. In the rest 15 centres, indices remained stationary.

The indices of 36 centres are above All-India Index and in 41 centres, indices were below national average. The index of Chandigarh centre remained at par with All-India Index.