New Delhi: The wholesale price-based inflation (WPI) rate was at 7.81 per cent for the week ended September 4, from a four-year high of 8.33 per cent during the previous week.

The data released by the ministry of commerce and industry on Friday showed that the year-on-year inflation figure has declined despite an all-round increase in the indices of primary articles, fuels and manufactured products during the latest week.

According to the data, the WPI rose by 0.3 per cent to 189.1 points during the week ended September 4. The index stood at 175.4 points during the corresponding period last year.

The index of the primary articles' group (which has a weight of 22.02 per cent in the WPI basket) was up by nearly one per cent to 194.4 points due to costlier food and non-food items.

The index of the fuel, power, light and lubricants group was up 0.3 per cent to 281.6 points due to rise in the prices of aviation turbine fuel (12 per cent), naphtha (four per cent) and bitumen (three per cent) though domestic oil prices were steady.

The index for the manufactured products' group (which carries the highest weight of 63.75 per cent in the WPI basket) rose by 0.2 per cent to 166.7 points due to costlier food products, beverages tobacco, chemicals, leather and transport equipment.

The food articles group's index rose by one per cent to 190.8 points due to higher prices of fruits, tea, fish-inland and bajra and maize and arhar (by one per cent each). The non-food articles' group index was up 0.6 per cent to 196.5 points owing to costlier sunflower, niger seed, fodder cent, skins, cotton seed, gingelly seed and raw cotton).

The food products' group index rose by 0.2 per cent to 175.9 points owing to higher prices of canned fish (four per cent), sooji-rawa (three per cent), packed tea, maida, sugar and hydrogenated vanaspati (two per cent each) and atta, cotton seed oil, groundnut oil and gur (one per cent each).

Prices fell in the case of oil cakes (three per cent), solvent extracted groundnut oil, all kinds of bran and coconut oil (two per cent each) and rice bran oil, butter and imported edible oil (one per cent each). The beverages tobacco and tobacco products' group index rose by 0.3 per cent to 217.1 points on account of costlier scented chewing tobacco (two per cent) and beer and alcohol and cigarettes (one per cent each).

The index for the textiles group was down 0.1 per cent to 138.7 points due to a one per cent fall in the prices of cotton yarn-cones, viscose staple fibre and cotton yarn-hanks.