India’s annual rate of inflation, based on monthly wholesale price index (WPI), dropped to a five-year low of 1.7 per cent for the month of October, 2014 (over October, 2013), according to the provisional data released by the Office of the Economic Adviser, Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
In comparison, annual rate of inflation was 2.38 per cent for September 2014 and 7.24 per cent during October 2013. Build up inflation rate in the financial year 2014-15 so far was 2.00 per cent compared to a build up rate of 6.23 per cent in the corresponding period of the previous year.
Likewise, the official WPI for all commodities (Base: 2004-05 = 100) for the month of October, 2014 declined by 0.6 per cent to 183.9 from 185.0 for September, 2014.
However, the index for manufactured products (weight 64.97 per cent) remained unchanged at its previous month’s level of 155.8. The index for textiles sub-group declined by 0.6 per cent to 143.3 from 144.1 for the previous month due to lower price of cotton yarn (2 per cent) and jute sacking cloth, jute sacking bag and man-made fibre (1 per cent each).
The index for primary articles (weight 20.12 per cent) declined by 1.2 per cent to 255.0 from 258.2 for the previous month. The index for fuel and power (weight 14.91 per cent) declined by 1.3 per cent to 210.7 from 213.4 for the previous month.
Meanwhile, the all-India consumer price index (CPI) on base 2010=100 stood at 5.52 in October, 2014 compared to 6.46 in September, 2014 and 10.17 in October, 2013, according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. (RKS)
