Inflation crosses 3 pc mark

Inflation crosses 3 pc mark
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

NEW DELHI, JAN 2: Inflation rate rose past the three per cent mark for the week ended December 18 and stood at 3.13 per cent following a sharp increase in prices of non-food articles.

The 0.29 percentage point spurt in the annual rate of inflation to 3.13 per cent (provisional) compared to 2.84 per cent (provisional) in the previous week was mainly on account of a 1.4 per cent rise in prices of non-food articles under the primary articles category. Inflation rate was much higher at 5.91 per cent during the corresponding period last year. The wholesale price index for `all commodities' (base:1981-82=100) for the week ended December 18, stood marginally higher at 365.7 (provisional) as against 365.6 (provisional) in the previous week.

The rise in inflation for the second week in a row follows a steady decline witnessed during the most part of November due to continued decline in prices of food articles on account of the arrivals of fresh agriculture crops.

The lower rate of inflation witnessed during mostpart of the current fiscal is mainly on account of a comparison with a higher base last year when overall prices were up following an abnormal increase in vegetable prices.

The final wholesale price index (WPI) for the week ended October 23 stood higher at 371.1 as against 369.4 calculated on the provisional index. The final annual rate of inflation for the same week stood at 3.4 per cent as against 3.0 per cent calculated provisionally.

The inflation rate based on consumer price index for industrial workers (CPI-IW), dropped to zero per cent for the month of November 1999, even as the index number registered an increase of one point to stand at 438.The CPI-IW had registered an increase of five points during the same month last year when the inflation rate had touched 19.8 per cent. While the primary articles' index registered an increase of 0.2 per cent during the week under review, index for fuel, power, light & lubricants remained unchanged at the previous week's level.

Index for manufacturedproducts declined marginally from the previous week's level.