SME Times News Bureau | 14 Aug, 2018
The annual rate of inflation based on wholesale prices eased to 5.09 per
cent in July from a rise of 5.77 per cent in June, official data showed on Tuesday.
The data on wholesale price index (WPI) furnished by the Ministry of Commerce
and Industry showed that the rate of inflation had increased to 1.88 per cent
during the corresponding month in 2017.
"Build up inflation rate in the financial year so far was 2.92 per
cent compared to a build up rate of 0.62 per cent in the corresponding period
of the previous year," the ministry said in its review statement.
On a sequential basis, the expenses on primary articles, which constitute 22.62
per cent of the WPI's total weightage, inched up by 1.73 per cent, from an
increase of 5.30 per cent in June 2018.
Prices of food articles dipped. The category has a weightage of 15.26 per cent
in the WPI index. It deflated by (-) 2.16 per cent from a rise of 1.80 per
cent.
However, the cost of fuel and power category, which commands a 13.15 per cent
weightage in the index, increased at a faster pace of 18.10 per cent from a
growth of 16.18 per cent.
In addition, expenses on manufactured products registered a rise of 4.26 per
cent from 4.17 per cent.
The wholesale data came a day after release of July retail inflation data
on Monday.
India's July retail
inflation fell to 4.17 per cent from 4.92 per cent in June, even as it
continued to rule over the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)'s medium-term inflation
target of 4 per cent, official data showed on Monday.
However, on a year-on-year (YoY) basis, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) in July
2018 was higher than in the corresponding period last year, when retail
inflation stood at 2.36 per cent.
According to the data furnished by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), the
Consumer Food Price Index (CFPI) rose 1.37 per cent in July from 2.91 per cent
in June 2018.
Product-wise, prices of milk-based products, eggs, meat and fish pushed the
retail inflation higher on a YoY basis.
In contrast, deflation in the cost of vegetables, pulses and sugar capped the
overall food prices.
