Inflation Rate Dips To 6 Per Cent, Wpi At 323.3

The annual rate of inflation for the week ended May 17 dropped marginally after a week's lapse to stand at 6 per cent.

The annual rate of inflation, calculated on a point-to-point basis dipped marginally by 0.4 percentage points to 6 per cent (provisional) as compared with 6.04 per cent (provisional) for the previous week.

Inflation in the previous week had risen marginally by 0.6 percentage points after falling continuously for 10 successive weeks.

The wholesale price index (WPI) for all commodities (base 1981-82=100) moved up by 0.2 per cent during the week under review to 323.3 against 322.8 in the week before.

 

The rate of inflation during the corresponding week of 1996 was 4.42 per cent.

During the week under review, prices of sunflower (11 per cent), bidi (10 per cent), raw rubber (9 per cent), and tea and gur (per cent each) witnessed sharp increases, while that of diammonium phosphate (-10 per cent), masur and poultry chicken (-7 per cent each), fodder (-5 per cent) and lac (-4 per cent) eased substantially.

Meanwhile, the annual rate of inflation based on the final index for the week ended march 22, 1997 stood at 6.9 per cent compared to 7.5 per cent based on provisional index.

The rate of price increase started falling in February this year, after a seven-month period of steady rise between July 1996 and January 1997.

The annual rate of inflation based on WPI, which was around 11.5 per cent in February 1995, steadily declined till June 1996 when it touched a record low of 4.2 per cent. However, it went on a sharp upward climb after the petroleum price hike in July first week last year.

Interestingly, inflation based on the consumer price index (CPI) for industrial workers is still much higher at 9.3 per cent in April (latest available) compared with 6.6 per cent for the month based on the WPI.

Among the various major WPI groups, index for `primary articles' declined by 0.3 per cent in the reference week to 333.2 from 334.1 for the previous week.

However, indices for the other two major groups, fuel, power light and lubricants and manufactured products were up by 0.4 per cent each during the week under review.

Among primary articles, the index for `food articles' declined by 0.4 per cent to 3,80 from 381.5 for the previous week due to lower prices of masur and poultry chicken (-7 per cent each), pork and vegetables (-3 per cent each), maize, barley and eggs (-2 per cent each). But, prices of tea (4 per cent) wheat, gram and condiments and spices (1 per cent each), went up during the week.