Retail inflation for industrial workers increased to 5.24 per cent in December 2018 as compared to 4 per cent in the year-ago period.
“The inflation measured by monthly CPI-IW (consumer price index-industrial workers) stood at 5.24 per cent for December 2018 as compared to 4.86 per cent for the previous month and 4 per cent during December 2017,” a Labour Ministry statement said.
According to the statement, food inflation in December stood at (-) 0.96 per cent against (-) 1.57 per cent in November and 4.32 per cent in the year-ago month.
The All-India CPI-IW for December declined by 1 point and was pegged at 301. On 1-month percentage change, it dropped by (-) 0.33 per cent between November-December 2018 when compared with a fall of (-) 0.69 per cent for the corresponding months of 2017.
It said the maximum downward pressure to the change in current index came from the food group, contributing (-) 1.38 percentage points to the total change.
Onion, banana, coconut, lemon, brinjal, cabbage, chillies green, carrot, cauliflower, french beans, spinach, peas, potato, radish, tomato, sugar, cooking gas and petrol are responsible for the decline in index.
However, it said the decline was checked by fish, poultry (chicken), tea (readymade), ESI (Employees’ State Insurance) premium and repair charges (bicycle), putting upward pressure on the index.
Centre-wise, Munger Jamalpur, Tripura and Doom-Dooma Tinsukia reported the maximum drop (6 points each), followed by Ranchi Hatia, Lucknow and Kanpur (5 points each).
Among others, a 4-point fall was observed in 3 centres, 3 points in 7 centres, 2 points in 16 centres and 1 point in 13 centres.
On the contrary, Salem recorded a maximum increase of 6 points, followed by Jalpaiguri (5 points). Among others, a 2-point increase was observed in 4 centres and 1 point in 12 centres. In the remaining 15 centres, indices remained stationary.
The indices of 36 centres were above the all-India index and below the national average in 41 centres. The index of Chandigarh centre remained on a par with the all-India index.