Retail inflation for industrial workers rises to 5.84% in January

Retail inflation for industrial workers rose to 5.84 per cent in January over the same month a year ago mainly due to higher prices of certain food items, the labour ministry said on Monday.

"Year-on-year inflation for the month stood at 5.84 per cent compared to 5.56 per cent for the previous month and 3.15 per cent during the corresponding month a year before," a labour ministry statement said.

Similarly, it stated food inflation stood at 6.22 per cent as against 5.93 per cent of the previous month and 2.38 per cent during the corresponding month a year ago.

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According to the data, the All-India CPI-IW (consumer price index for industrial workers) for January 2022 decreased by 0.3 point and stood at 125.1 points. It was 125.4 points in December 2021.

On one-month percentage change, it decreased by 0.24 per cent with respect to previous month compared to decrease of 0.51 per cent recorded between corresponding months a year ago.

The maximum downward pressure in current index came from food & beverages group contributing 0.82 percentage point to the total change. At item level, fish fresh, mustard oil, apple, carrot, french-been, garlic, brinjal, cauliflower, lady's finger, onion, peas, potato, radish, tomato, etc, are responsible for the fall in index.

However, this decrease was checked by house rent, rice, wheat, buffalo-milk, goat meat/mutton, orange, beetroot, chilli dry, cooked meals, etc, putting upward pressure on the index.

At centre level, Puducherry recorded a maximum decrease of 7.3 points. Among others, 5 centres recorded decrease between 2 and 2.9 points, 13 centres between 1 and 1.9 points and 33 centres between 0.1 to 0.9 point.

On the contrary, Ludhiana recorded a maximum increase of 2.3 points. Among others, 6 centres recorded increase between 1 to 1.9 points and 26 centres between 0.1 and 0.9 point. Rest of three 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 succeeding month.