Retail inflation for industrial workers eases to 5.79% in March

Retail inflation for industrial workers eased to 5.79 percent in March compared to 6.16 per cent in February this year, mainly due to lower prices of certain food items.

"Year-on-year inflation for the month stood at 5.79 percent compared to 6.16 per cent for the previous month (February 2023) and 5.35 percent during the corresponding month (March 2022) a year before," an official statement said.

Similarly, it stated that food inflation stood at 5.02 percent against 6.13 percent in the previous month and 6.27 percent during the corresponding month a year ago.

The All-India CPI-IW (Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers) for March 2023 increased by 0.6 points and stood at 133.3 points. It was 132.7 points in February 2023.

On one-month percentage change, it increased by 0.45 percent with respect to the previous month compared to a rise of 0.80 percent recorded between corresponding months a year ago.

The maximum upward pressure in the current index came from the fuel & light group, contributing 0.25 percentage points to the total change.

At the item level, Cooking Gas/LPG, Firewood and Chips, Hospital/Nursing Home Charges, Medicine Allopathic, Motorcycle/Scooter Moped, Toilet Soap, Toothpaste, Arhar Dal, Cow Milk, Dairy Milk, Fish Fresh, Pure Ghee, Apple, Banana, Cauliflower, Brinjal, Cabbage, Bitter Guard, French bean, Lemon, Peas, Cumin Seed/Jira, Cooked Meal are responsible for the rise in the index.

However, this increase was largely checked by Wheat Atta, Rice, Potato, Onion, Drumstick, Lady Finger, Tomato, Grapes, Soyabean Oil, Sunflower Oil, Mustard Oil, Cotton Seed Oil, Poultry Chicken, Egg-Hen etc, putting downward pressure on the index, it explained.

At the centre level, Ahmedabad recorded a maximum increase of 3.3 points followed by Jamshedpur and Gurugram with 3.2 and 3.1 points, respectively.

Among others, 3 centres recorded an increase between 2 to 2.9 points, 23 centres between 1 to 1.9 points and 43 centres between 0.1 to 0.9 points.

On the contrary, Salem recorded a maximum decrease of 1.4 points followed by Tirunelveli and Tripura with 1.1 and 1 point, respectively. Among others, 9 centres recorded a decrease between 0.1 to 0.9 points. The rest of the four centres' indices 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 and All-India and is released on the last working day of the succeeding month.