Retail inflation for industrial workers move up to 11.62%

NEW DELHI: Retail inflation for industrial workers for January moved up to 11.62 per cent mainly on account increase in price of essential food items like rice, wheat, egg, meat and vegetables.

The retail inflation measures by Consumer Price Index-Industrial Worker (CPI-IW) was 11.7 per cent in December and 5.32 per cent in January last year, a Labour Ministry statement said.

Food inflation stood at 14.08 per cent in January as against 13.53 per cent a month ago and 0.49 per cent in the corresponding month last year.

The largest upward contribution to the index came from housing group which increased by 3.53 per cent, contributing 1.28 percentage points to the total change. This was followed by miscellaneous and food groups.

At the item level, the largest upward pressure came from rice, wheat and its flour, groundnut oil, eggs, fish, meat, chicken, onion, tea, fire wood, autorickshaw charge, bus and rail fare.

However, the rise was neutralised by downward pressure from items like arhar dal, potato, tomato, other green vegetables, sugar, electricity charges and flower garland.

Durgapur recorded the largest increase in index followed by Jharia, Godavarikhani and Goa. In case of Jalandhar, Rourkela and Sholapur reported decline by one point each.