New Delhi: Retail inflation for industrial workers rose to 5.64 per cent in March, mainly due to higher prices of certain food items and fuel, including petrol and cooking gas. “Year-on-year inflation for the month (March) was 5.64 percent compared to 4.48 percent for the previous month (February 2021) and 5.50 percent during the corresponding month (March 2020) of the previous year,” said the Ministry of Labor in a statement.
Food inflation, according to the statement, was at 5.36 percent compared to 4.64 percent from the previous month and 6.67 percent during the corresponding month a year ago. The India CPI-IW (Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers) for March 2021 increased by 0.6 points and stood at 119.6 points. With a percentage change of 1 month, it increased by 0.50 percent compared to the previous month (February 2021), while there was a decrease of 0.61 percent between the corresponding months a year ago.
The maximum upward pressure in the current index comes from ‘fuel and light group’ which contributed 0.40 percentage points to the total change. This was further supplemented by diverse groups contributing 0.15 percentage points to the total increase. At article level, cooking gas, gasoline, poultry chicken, edible oils, apple, orange, tea leaves, and served and processed packaged foods are responsible for the rise in the index.
However, this increase was mostly checked by vegetables, which puts the index under pressure. At the middle level, Jamshedpur and Sangrur recorded the highest increase of 3 points each. Four centers observed an increase in the range of 2-2.9 points, 22 centers in 1-1.9 points and 45 centers 0-0.9 points, among others.
On the contrary, Doom-Dooma Tinsukia recorded the highest drop of 3.2 points. Among other things, two centers observed a decrease in the series of 2-2.9 points, another 2 centers in 1-1.9 points and the remaining 10 centers 0-0.9 points. DPS Negi, Director-General of the Labor Bureau, said: “The rise in inflation during March 2021 has been observed across the board with respect to various price indices announced by other government agencies.” Negi further said that the increase is mainly due to increases in ‘fuel and light’, miscellaneous products and among other things food and beverages (such as cooking gas), petrol, chicken for poultry and edible oils.
Labor Minister Santosh Gangwar said: “The rise in the index will lead to increased wages of the working class population by increasing the compensation payable to them.” CPI-IW is the most important price statistic that has financial implications.
It is mainly used to regulate the animal allowances of government employees and workers in industrial sectors. It is also used for setting and reviewing minimum wages in scheduled service, in addition to measuring inflation in retail prices. The rise in inflation reported during March 2021 is mainly due to a rise in prices of petroleum products and edible oils, Gangwar added.
The Labor Bureau, an affiliated office of the Ministry of Labor, compiled the monthly consumer price index for industrial workers based on retail prices collected from 317 markets, spread across 88 industry-important centers in the country. The index is compiled for 88 centers and throughout India and is released on the last working day of the following month.
Source: Telangana Today