The Hindu Business Line : Inflation rises on costly food, minerals

THE annual wholesale price index (WPI)-based inflation rate rose to 7.38 per cent for the week ended October 23 from 7.1 per cent during the preceding week.

The year-on-year inflation rate was up due to an all-round price hike across the three major commodity categories, with the WPI rising 0.3 per cent to 189.1 points, according to data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry today.

While the index of primary articles rose 0.7 per cent to 191.8 points due to costlier food and non-food articles, the index of fuel, power, light and lubricants was up marginally by 0.2 per cent to 282.3 points, mainly due to a five per cent hike in naphtha prices.

Manufactured products was up marginally by 0.1 per cent to 167.4 points due to costlier food products, chemicals, base metals, and transport equipment.

Among primary articles, the food articles group index rose by 0.5 per cent to 190 points due to higher prices for vegetables and eggs (four per cent each), poultry chicken (three per cent), jowar (two per cent) and moong and barley (one per cent).

Prices, however, declined in the case of maize (two per cent) and arhar, tea and urad (one per cent each).

The index of non-food articles was up by 0.1 per cent to 187.7 points due to costlier raw silk (six per cent), raw rubber, gingelly seed & raw jute (two per cent each) and groundnut seed & sunflower (one per cent each).

Prices, however, fell for niger seed (three per cent), safflower (two per cent) and castor seed, skins, sugarcane and cotton seed (one per cent each).

The minerals index shot up by nine per cent to 299.1 points due to higher prices for fire clay (20 per cent), iron ore (14 per cent), barytes (11 per cent), china clay (five per cent) and gypsum (four per cent).

However, chromites became cheaper by 52 per cent, magnesite by 25 per cent, steatite 14 per cent and fluorite (one per cent).

Among the manufactured products, the food products index was up by 0.1 per cent to 176.4 points due to higher prices of solvent-extracted groundnut oil and groundnut oil (two per cent each), and rice bran oil (one per cent), even as gur became cheaper by two per cent.

A one per cent decline in the prices of cotton-yarn hanks pushed down the index for textiles by 0.1 per cent to 137.4 points, while woollen yarn became costlier by one per cent.

The chemicals and chemical products group index was up by 0.1 per cent to 182.1 points, but vitamin tablets became cheaper by one per cent.

A marginal decline in cement prices led to a 0.3 per cent decline in the non-metallic mineral products index to 155.9 points.

The basic metals, alloys, and metal products group rose by 0.4 per cent to 206.1 points due to higher prices of aluminium sheets and strips (nine per cent), aluminium rolled products (five per cent), MS bars and rounds and other iron steel (four per cent each), steel sheets, plates and strips, aluminium ingots (two per cent each) and aluminium foils (one per cent).

A nine per cent hike in the prices of PVC insulated cables pushed up machinery and machine tools by 0.4 per cent to 141.2 points, even as semiconductor prices fell by six per cent.

A one per cent increase in the price of bus chassis (diesel) pushed up the transport equipment and parts index by 0.1 per cent to 155.5 points.

The Government also released the final WPI inflation figures at 8.74 per cent for the week ended August 28, much higher that the provisional figure of 8.33 per cent released earlier.

The final WPI stood corrected at 189.2 points during the last week of August as compared to the provisional mark of 188.5 points.