Friday, April 17, 2009

Inflation dips to 0.18% despite costlier food, fuels

Inflation dips to 0.18% despite costlier food, fuels
The Hindu Business Line, April 17, 2009, Page 7

Wholesale Price Index for all commodities at 228.2.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Inflation was recorded at 7.71 per cent during the corresponding week of the previous year.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Our Bureau, New Delhi

The annual Wholesale Price Index-based inflation inched closer to zero in early April, which could give the Reserve Bank of India a room to cut interest rates when it reviews policy next week.

Headline inflation rose 0.18 per cent during the week ended April 4, below the previous week’s annual rise of 0.26 per cent.

The dip in the year-on-year inflation rate was despite a marked upward pressure in items such as food items and fuels during the latest reported week.

Inflation was recorded at 7.71 per cent during the corresponding week of the previous year.

The official WPI for ‘All Commodities’ for the latest week rose by 0.4 per cent to 228.2 points from 227.3 points for the previous week.

On a disaggregated basis, inflation in the Primary Articles group increased to 4.5 per cent in the latest reported week, up from 3.5 per cent in the previous week.

Food articles


In ‘food articles’, inflation rose by 100 basis points to 7.3 per cent from 6.3 per cent in the week ended March 28. In ‘non-food articles’, it turned positive at 1.0 per cent compared to (-) 0.1 per cent last week.

Minerals group


In ‘minerals’, the rate of inflation held steady at (-) 12.8 per cent in the current week. In the fuel and power group, inflation, though continuing in the negative zone, eased to (-) 5.9 per cent in the week under reference, as against (-) 6.1 per cent in the previous week.

In the Manufactured Products group, the year-on-year inflation rate decreased to 0.8 per cent in the current week, from 1.4 per cent last week, following reduced inflation in nine out of the 12 sub-groups.

Food products, rubber and plastic products, and wood and wood products were the notable exceptions. Inflation in the combined food index (which has a weightage 25.43 per cent in the overall WPI) for the week ended April 4 increased by 100 basis points to 6.8 per cent compared to 5.8 per cent last week.

Most of the sub-components of primary food articles and of manufactured food products have recorded increases in the week under reference relative to the previous week

For the week ended February 7, the final WPI for ‘All Commodities’ stood revised at 227.5 points, as compared to the provisional estimate of 228 points and the annual rate of inflation based on final index, calculated on point-to-point basis, stood at 3.69 per cent as compared to 3.92 per cent reported provisionally.

No comments: