Inflation shoots up to 8.29%

Inflation shoots up to 8.29%
AGENCIES

NEW DELHI, FEB 4: Annual inflation rate shot up by 0.13 percentage points to 8.29 per cent in the week ended January 20, due to costlier primary and manufactured items. The inflation rate based on wholesale price index (WPI) for all commodities (base: 1993-94 = 100) moved up to a new high after remaining static at 8.16 per cent during the previous three weeks and was only 3.92 per cent a year ago.

The WPI rose by 0.1 per cent to 158 as against 157.8 in the previous week. The index was 145.9 a year ago. The final WPI stood at 158.2 during the week ended November 25 as against the provisional figure of 157.6. The inflation rate based on final index was higher at 7.84 per cent as a provisional figure of 7.43 per cent.

The rate of inflation based on consumer price index for industrial workers (CPI-IW) (base: 1982 = 100) also increased to 3.48 per cent during December from 2.47 per cent in the previous month and 0.47 per cent a year ago. Although prices of fuel, power, light and lubricants remained unchanged, prices of primary items rose by 0.2 per cent while manufactured products’ prices were up by 0.1 per cent during the week.

The index for primary articles increased to 161.7 from previous week’s level of 161.3, due to a sharp one per cent rise in prices of non-food articles. The index was 155.2 a year ago. Although the index for food articles group remained unchanged, prices increased for barley and arhar (three per cent each), jowar and mutton (two per cent each), condiments and spices (one per cent).