Low food prices drive retail inflation for industrial workers down to 5.79%

Retail inflation for industrial workers eased to 5.79 per cent in March compared to 6.16 per cent in February this year, mainly due to lower prices of certain food items.

"Year-on-year inflation for the month stood at 5.79 per cent compared to 6.16 per cent for the previous month (February 2023) and 5.35 per cent during the corresponding month (March 2022) a year before," an official statement said.

Similarly, it stated that food inflation stood at 5.02 per cent against 6.13 per cent in the previous month and 6.27 per cent during the corresponding month a year ago.

The All-India CPI-IW (Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers) for March 2023 increased by 0.6 points and stood at 133.3 points. It was 132.7 points in February 2023.

On one-month percentage change, it increased by 0.45 per cent with respect to the previous month compared to a rise of 0.80 per cent recorded between corresponding months a year ago.

The maximum upward pressure in the current index came from the fuel & light group, contributing 0.25 percentage points to the total change.

At the item level, Cooking Gas/LPG, Firewood and Chips, Hospital/Nursing Home Charges, Medicine Allopathic, Motor Cycle/Scooter Moped, Toilet Soap, Tooth Paste, Arhar Dal, Cow Milk, Dairy Milk, Fish Fresh, Pure Ghee, Apple, Banana, Cauliflower, Brinjal, Cabbage, Bitter Guard, French bean, Lemon, Peas, Cumin Seed/Jira, Cooked Meal are responsible for the rise in the index.

However, this increase was largely checked by Wheat Atta, Rice, Potato, Onion, Drum Stick, Lady Finger, Tomato, Grapes, Soyabean Oil, Sunflower Oil, Mustard Oil, Cotton Seed Oil, Poultry Chicken, Egg-Hen etc, putting downward pressure on the index, it explained.

At the centre level, Ahmedabad recorded a maximum increase of 3.3 points followed by Jamshedpur and Gurugram with 3.2 and 3.1 points, respectively.

Among others, 3 centres recorded an increase between 2 to 2.9 points, 23 centres between 1 to 1.9 points and 43 centres between 0.1 to 0.9 points.

On the contrary, Salem recorded a maximum decrease of 1.4 points followed by Tirunelveli and Tripura with 1.1 and 1 point, respectively. Among others, 9 centres recorded a decrease between 0.1 to 0.9 points. The rest of the four centres' indices remained stationary.

The Labour Bureau, an attached office of the Ministry of Labour & Employment, has been compiling Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers every month on the basis of retail prices collected from 317 markets spread over 88 industrially important centres in the country.

The index is compiled for 88 centres and All-India and is released on the last working day of the succeeding month.