Retail inflation for industrial workers rises marginally to 4.5 pc in Oct

PTI, Nov 30, 2021, 5:23 PM IST

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Retail inflation for industrial workers rose marginally to 4.5 per cent in October as compared with 4.41 per cent in September.

”Year-on-year inflation for the month stood at 4.50 per cent compared to 4.41 per cent for the previous month and 5.91 per cent during the corresponding month (October 2020) a year before,” the labour ministry said in a statement.

Food inflation stood at 2.20 per cent in October 2021 against 2.26 per cent in the previous month and 8.21 per cent during the corresponding month of October 2020 a year ago.

The all-India CPI-IW (Consumer Price Index-Industrial Workers) for October 2021 increased 1.6 points and stood at 124.9 points. It was 123.3 points in September 2020.

On a one-month percentage change, it increased 1.30 per cent with respect to the previous month compared to an increase of 1.19 per cent recorded between corresponding months a year ago.

The maximum upward pressure in the current index came from the food and beverages group contributing 1.31 percentage points to the total change. At the item level, mustard oil, tomato, onion, brinjal, cabbage, cauliflower, lady’s finger, peas, potato, cooking gas, and petrol for vehicle are responsible for the rise in the index.

However, this increase was largely checked by moong dal, fish fresh, apple, grapes, orange and ginger, putting downward pressure on the index.

D P S Negi, principal labour and employment advisor and chief labour commissioner, in the statement said that at the centre level, Udham Singh Nagar recorded a maximum increase of 5.8 points followed by Ramgarh and Biswanath-Chariali with 4.6 points and 4.0 points, respectively.

Among others, five centres observed an increase in the range of 3-3.9 points, 22 centres in 2-2.9 points, 39 centres between 1 and 1.9 points, and 16 centres between 0.1 and 0.9 points. On the contrary, Ludhiana recorded a maximum decrease of 0.3 points, followed by Idukki and Darjeeling with 0.2 points each.

The Labour Bureau, an attached office of the Ministry of Labour & Employment, has been compiling CPI-IW every month on the basis of retail prices collected from 317 markets spread over 88 industrially important centres in the country.

The index is compiled for 88 centres and all-India, and is released on the last working day of the succeeding month.