Wholesale Price Index for all commodities declines by 1.4% in Dec. 2018

Speed Post News Network

New Delhi : The official Wholesale Price Index (WPI) for ‘All Commodities’ (Base: 2011-12=100) for the month of December, 2018 declined by 1.4 percent to 120.1 (provisional) from 121.8 (provisional) for the previous month.

The annual rate of inflation, based on monthly WPI, stood at 3.80% (provisional) for the month of December, 2018 (over December, 2017) as compared to 4.64% (provisional) for the previous month and 3.58% during the corresponding month of the previous year. Build up inflation rate in the financial year so far was 3.27% compared to a build up rate of 2.21% in the corresponding period of the previous year.

PRIMARY ARTICLES (Weight 22.62%) : The index for this major group declined by 1.8 percent to 134.7 (provisional) from 137.2 (provisional) for the previous month. The index for ‘Food Articles’ group declined by 1.4 percent to 144.0 (provisional) from 146.1 (provisional) for the previous month due to lower price of fruits & vegetables (8%), peas/chawali (7%), condiments & spices (2%) and paddy (1%). However, the price of betel leaves (14%), arhar (9%), maize and poultry chicken (6% each), gram, fish-marine and urad (4% each), jowar and masur (3% each), bajra and coffee (2% each) and rajma, pork, moong, fish-inland, barley, ragi and tea (1% each) moved up.

The index for ‘Crude Petroleum & Natural Gas’ group declined by 11.9 percent to 91.7 (provisional) from 104.1 (provisional) for the previous month due to lower price of crude petroleum (16%).

The index for ‘Manufacture of Food Products’ group declined by 1.0 percent to 127.7 (provisional) from 129.0 (provisional) for the previous month due to lower price of molasses (6%), gur, honey and coffee powder with chicory (5% each), rice bran oil and palm oil (4% each), powder milk, manufacture of processed ready to eat food and cotton seed oil (3% each), sugar, butter, other meats and castor oil (2% each) and  manufacture of prepared animal feeds, instant coffee, vanaspati, ghee, sooji (rawa), mustard oil, groundnut oil, processed tea and manufacture of bakery products (1% each).

The index for ‘Manufacture of Beverages’ group rose by 0.2 percent to 122.0 (provisional) from 121.7 (provisional) for the previous month due to higher price of aerated drinks/soft drinks (incl. soft drink concentrates) (1%).  However, the price of bottled mineral water and beer (1% each) declined.

The index for ‘Manufacture of Wearing Apparel’ group rose by 0.2 percent to 138.4 (provisional) from 138.1 (provisional) for the previous month due to higher price of leather garments incl. jackets and shawls & scarves [knitted] (1% each), according to a PIB release.