Inflation rate falls to 3.36 per cent

The annual rate of inflation based on the wholesale price index stood 0.56 percentage point lower at 3.36 per cent (provisional) for the week ended 14 February 2009 against 3.92 per cent (provisional) for the previous week  and 5.66 per cent during the corresponding week (ended 16 February 2008) of the previous year, official data released today showed.

The official wholesale price index for 'all commodities' (base: 1993-94 = 100) for the week ended 14 February 2009 declined by 0.1 per cent to 227.8 (provisional) from 228.0 (provisional) in the previous week, with fall in prices of major items like food and manufactured products.

The index for `primary articles' group rose marginally to 248.1 (provisional) from 248.0 (provisional) for the previous week.

However, among primary articles, the index for 'food articles' group declined by 0.3 per cent to 244.2 (provisional) from 244.9  (provisional) for the previous week due to lower prices of maize (-5 per cent), barley (-3 per cent), fruits and vegetables (-2 per cent) and eggs, condiments and spices and  mutton (-1 per cent each).   However, prices of arhar (6 per cent), fish-marine (4 per cent), ragi (2 per cent) and bajra, jowar and urad (1 per cent each) moved up.

The index for 'non-food articles' group declined by 0.1 per cent to 228.4 (provisional) from 228.6 (provisional) for the previous week due to lower prices of raw silk (-4 per cent), raw cotton and raw rubber (-2 per cent each) and copra and rape and mustard seed (-1 per cent each). However, the prices of niger seed (12 per cent), linseed (10 per cent) and cotton seed (2 per cent) moved up.

The index for 'minerals' group rose by 5.3 per cent to 622.6 (provisional) from 591.1 (provisional) for the previous week due to higher prices of magnesite (83 per cent), barytes (38 per cent), ochre (25 per cent), iron ore (6 per cent), chromite (3 per cent) and steatite (1 per cent).  However, the prices of fire clay (-35 per cent), dolomite (-24 per cent) and asbestos (-2 per cent) declined.

The index for the `fuel, power, light and lubricants' group remained unchanged at its previous week's level of 323.5 (provisional).
 
The index for the 'manufactured products' group declined by 0.1 per cent to 199.5 (provisional) from 199.7 (provisional) for the previous week.

The index for 'food products' group declined by 0.3 per cent to 212.4 (provisional) from 213.0 (provisional) for the previous week due to lower prices of oil cakes and rape and mustard oil (-2 per cent each) and gingelly oil, sooji (rawa), coconut oil and rice bran oil (-1 per cent each). However, the prices of bran (all kinds) (3 per cent) and imported edible oil and sugar (1 per cent each) moved up.

The index for 'beverages tobacco and tobacco products' group rose 3.0 per cent to 301.5 (provisional) from 292.6 (provisional) for the previous week due to higher prices of zerda (28 per cent) and Indian made foreign spirit (17 per cent).

The index for 'textiles' group rose 1.2 per cent to 140.7 (provisional) from 139.0 (provisional) for the previous week due to higher prices of cotton yarn-cones (6 per cent), texturised yarn (2 per cent) and synthetic yarn and polyester staple fibre (1 per cent each). However, the prices of hessian and sacking bags and other cotton yarn (-1 per cent each) declined.

The index for 'paper and paper products' group rose by 0.1 per cent to 204.9 (provisional) from 204.7 (provisional) for the previous week due to higher prices of news paper (1 per cent).

The index for 'rubber and plastic products' group rose 0.1 per cent to 167.4 (provisional) from 167.3 (provisional) for the previous week due to higher prices of decorative laminates (2 per cent).

The index for 'chemicals and chemical products' group declined by 1.4 per cent to 214.7 (provisional) from 217.7 (provisional) for the previous week due to lower prices of epoxy resins (-76 per cent), polystyrene (-15 per cent) and liquid chlorine (-3 per cent). However, the prices of PVC resins (5 per cent), fireworks (4 per cent) and caustic soda (sodium hydroxide) (1 per cent) moved up.

The index for 'non-metallic mineral products' group rose 0.3 per cent to 217.0 (provisional) from 216.4 (provisional) for the previous week due to marginal increase in the prices of cement.

The index for 'basic metals alloys and metal products' group declined by 0.1 per cent to 257.4 (provisional) from 257.6 (provisional) for the previous week due to lower prices of aluminum ingots (-6 per cent). However, the prices of chains (11 per cent), zinc (9 per cent) and steel ingots (plain carbon) (5 per cent) moved up.

The index for 'machinery and machine tools' group declined by 0.1 per cent to 172.2 (provisional) from 172.4 (provisional) for the previous week due to lower prices of furnaces (-5 per cent) and air and gas compressors (-3 per cent).

The index for 'transport equipment and parts' group rose by 0.1 per cent to 176.1 (provisional) from 176.0 (provisional) for the previous week due to higher prices of motorcycles (1 per cent).

The annual rate of inflation based on final index for 20 December 2008 stood at  5.91 per cent as compared to 6.38 per cent (provisional) reported earlier (1 January 2009) as the final wholesale price index for 'all commodities stood at  229.2  as compared to 230.2  (provisional).