Consumer price inflation nearly constant at 10.70% in September

Consumer price inflation, based on the consumer price index for industrial workers (CPI-IW) stood at 10.70  per cent in September against 10.75 per cent in the previous year.

Consumer price inflation for industrial workers stood at 9.14 per cent in the same month last year.

The firmness in the retail price inflation has been due mainly on account of rise in prices of food items, fuel and electricity charges.

''The year-on-year inflation measured by monthly consumer price index - industrial workers (CPI-IW) stood at 10.70 per cent for September as compared to 10.75 per cent for the previous month, and 9.14 per cent during the corresponding month of the previous year,'' a labour ministry stated in a release.

The all-India CPI-IW for September 2013 rose by 1 point to 238.

The largest upward pressure came from miscellaneous group, which added 0.44 percentage points to the total.

At item level, arhar dal, goat meat, dairy milk, milk (cow and buffalo), pure ghee, salty snacks, tea leaves, onion, electricity charges, firewood, college fee, school fee, petrol, bus fare, tailoring charges etc are responsible for the rise in index.

However, this was compensated to some extent by lower prices of wheat, groundnut oil, mustard oil, poultry, ginger, vegetables and fruits.

The year-on-year inflation measured by monthly CPI-IW stood at 10.70 per cent for September, 2013 as compared to 10.75 per cent for the previous month and 9.14 per cent during the corresponding month of the previous year.

Similarly, food inflation stood at 13.36 per cent against 13.91 per cent of the previous month and 11.00 per cent during the corresponding month of the previous year.

The indices of 39 centres remained above the all-India level while indices in another 38 centres remained below the national average. The index of Ajmer centre remained at par with all-India index.