Retail inflation for industrial workers eases to 4.72% in September

New Delhi: Retail inflation for industrial workers eased to 4.72 per cent in September, compared to 6.91 per cent in August this year, mainly due to lower prices of certain food items and cooking gas.

"Year-on-year inflation for the month stood at 4.72 per cent compared to 6.91 per cent for the previous month (August 2023) and 6.49 per cent during the corresponding month (September 2022) a year before," a labour ministry statement said.

Similarly, it stated that the food inflation also reduced to 6.52 per cent against 10.06 per cent of the previous month and 7.76 per cent during the corresponding month a year ago.

According to the statement, the All-India CPI-IW (Consumer Price Index-Industrial Workers) for September 2023 decreased by 1.7 points and stood at 137.5. It was 139.2 points in August 2023.

The price index decreased by 1.22 per cent from previous month compared to an increase of 0.84 per cent recorded between the two corresponding months a year ago.

The maximum downward pressure in current index came from food & beverages group, contributing 1.10 percentage points to the total change.

At item level, fish fresh, cotton seed oil, mustard oil, apple, orange, bitter gourd, brinjal, cabbage, carrot, chillies green, ginger, lady's finger, tomato, capsicum, gourd, radish, cooking gas, etc. are responsible for the fall in index.

However, it stated that this decrease was checked by rice, wheat, wheat atta, arhar dal, chana dal, dairy milk, poultry/chicken, eggs-hen, banana, grapes, cauliflower, garlic, onion, cumin seed/jira, cooked meals, electricity domestic, kerosene oil, cigarettes, pan masala, school uniform (boys/girls), books school/ITI, tuition and other fees-college and school/ITI, etc. putting upward pressure on the index.

At centre level, Salem recorded a maximum decrease of 6.7 points followed by Udham Singh Nagar and Jalandhar with 5.8 and 5.4 points, respectively.

Among others, 5 centres recorded a decrease between 4 to 4.9 points, 5 centres between 3 to 3.9 points, 19 centres between 2 to 2.9 points, 30 centres between 1 to 1.9 points and 13 centres between 0.1 to 0.9 points. On the contrary, Jalpaiguri recorded a maximum increase of 1.9 points followed by Chikmagalur, and Jammu & Kashmir with 1.2 and 1.1 points, respectively.

Among others, 9 centres recorded an increase between 0.1 to 0.9 points and 1 centre index remained stationary.

The Labour Bureau, an attached office of the Ministry of Labour & Employment, has been compiling Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers 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 as well as for pan-India and is released on the last working day of the succeeding month.