Annual rate of inflation continued its downward movement to touch 3.75 per cent for the week ended September 20, the lowest in 11 years.
This is the second time in six weeks, inflation based on wholesale price index (WPI) has dropped to 3.75 per cent, the lowest since January 11, 1986.
The fall is all the more creditable since it comes on top of a hike in petroleum products in the first week of September, which had a direct impact of 0.74 percentage points on inflation.
During the week, the annual rate of inflation fell by 0.29 percentage points to 3.75 per cent (provisional) compared to 4.04 per cent (provisional) in the previous week and 6.62 per cent in the corresponding week last year. In the reference week, the index for all commodities (base 1981-82=100) fell marginally to 329.2 (provisional) from 329.3 (provisional) the week before.
Meanwhile, the rate of inflation based on the final index fell to a historical low of 3.6 per cent for the week ended July 26 (latest available), as against 4.0 per cent for the week based on the provisional index.
The final index for all commodities for the week stood at 324.7 as against the provisional index of 325.9.
During the week under review, among the three major groups in WPI, indices of primary products and manufactured products moved down marginally, while the index of fuel, power, light and lubricants moved up.
In the reference week, the index for primary articles declined marginally to 337.3 from 337.4 in the previous week.
Among the subgroups in primary articles, index for food articles went up while that of non-food articles eased. The food articles index went up by 0.2 per cent to 386.2 from 385.6 the week before due to firming up of prices of gram (2 per cent) and jowar, fruits and vegetables and mutton (1 per cent each).
However, prices of eggs (-3 per cent), arhar (-2 per cent) and bajra, maize and barley (-1 per cent each) eased during the week. Index for non-food articles went down by 0.4 per cent to 338.6 from 339.9 due to fall in prices of fodder (-3 per cent), groundnut seed (-2 per cent) and raw cotton, copra and raw tobacco (-1 per cent each).
However, price of cotton seed (2 per cent) went up during the week.
During the week, the index for fuel, power, light and lubricants rose by 0.1 per to 370.7 as against 370.2 for the last week due to higher price of petrol (2 per cent).
The index for manufactured products group fell by 0.1 per cent to 316.8 from 317.0 for the previous week due to decline in most subgroup indices.
Among the subgroups in manufactured products, index for food products fell marginally to 325.4 from 325.5. In the subgroup, prices of solvent extracted groundnut oil (-3 per cent) and coconut oil (-2 per cent) went down, while prices of biscuits (2 per cent) and ghee and rice bran oil (1 per cent each) went up.
The index for textiles went down by 0.1 per cent to 310.3 from 310.6 due to lower prices of viscose filament yarn, hessian cloth and hessian and sacking bags (-1 per cent each).
However, price of woollen cloth (2 per cent) went up during the week.
The index for non-metallic mineral products fell by 0.4 per cent to 345.3 from 346.6 due to fall in price of cement (-1 per cent each).
The index for basic metals, alloys and metal products fell marginally to 348.9 from 349.0 due to fall in price of steel wire (-4 per cent).
The index for machinery and machine tools fell marginally to 300.0 from 300.1 due to fall in prices of enamelled copper wires and glass lamps (-3 per cent each).
During the week, the prices of dry cells (2 per cent) and transformers (1 per cent) firmed up.
The index for transport equipment and parts went down by 0.2 per cent to 271.4 from 271.9 due to easing of prices of other automobile spare parts (-1 per cent).
The indices for all other group remained unaltered at their respective previous weeks level.
