Retail inflation for industrial workers falls to 2.89% in September on cheaper food items

Fish fresh, onion, bitter gourd, brinjal, carrot, gourd, lady’s finger, potato, tomato, torai, cucumber, apple, banana and the like are responsible for the drop in the index

Retail inflation for industrial workers slid to 2.89% in September, from 4.14% in the same month last year, on account of cheaper food items.

Food inflation stood at 1.30% as against 1.61% in August and 4.05% in September 2016. (HT File Photo)

However, the figure is higher than 2.52% in August.

“Year-on-year inflation measured by monthly CPI-IW (Consumer Price Index-Industrial Workers) stood at 2.89% for September 2017 compared to 2.52% for the previous month (August) and 4.14% during the corresponding month of the previous year,” a labour ministry statement said today.

Food inflation stood at 1.30% as against 1.61% in August and 4.05% in September 2016.

The maximum downward pressure in the current index came from the food segment contributing (-)1.26 percentage points.

Fish fresh, onion, bitter gourd, brinjal, carrot, gourd, lady’s finger, potato, tomato, torai, cucumber, apple, banana and the like are responsible for the drop in the index.

However, the statement said this decrease was checked by rice, wheat atta, arhar dal, coconut oil and poultry (chicken), among others.

The All India CPI-IW for September 2017 remained stationary at 285.

Tiruchirapally, Varanasi, Lucknow, Quilon and Salem reported the maximum decrease of 4 points each followed by Giridih, Bhilwara, Raniganj, Bengaluru, Faridabad, Vishakhapatnam, Jamshedpur and Haldia (3 points each).

Among others, a 2-point decrease was observed at 12 centres and 1 point in 18.

On the contrary, Tripura recorded a maximum increase of 7 points followed by Bhilai (6 points), Siliguri and Doom-Dooma Tinsukia (5 points each).

The indices of 44 centres came in below the all-India index.