India’s annual rate of inflation, based on monthly wholesale price index (WPI), stood at 2.84 per cent for the month of January 2018 over same month of last year. The index for apparel declined by 0.3 per cent to 138.5 in January, according to the provisional data released by the Office of the Economic Adviser, Ministry of Commerce and industry.
The official WPI for all commodities (Base: 2011-12 = 100) for the month of January 2018 rose by 0.1 per cent to 115.8 from 115.7 for the previous month, the data showed. The index for manufactured products (weight 64.23 per cent) for January 2018 rose by 0.6 per cent to 114.7 from 114.0 for the previous month. The index for ‘Manufacture of Wearing Apparel’ sub-group declined by 0.3 per cent to 138.5 from 138.9 for the previous month due to lower price of manufacture of knitted and crocheted apparel (1 per cent). The index for primary articles (weight 22.62 per cent) declined by 1.5 per cent to 129.7 from 131.7 for the previous month. The index for fuel and power (weight 13.15 per cent), on the other hand, increased by 0.4 per cent to 96.9 from 96.5 for the previous month due to higher price of non-coking coal, bitumen, ATF, naphtha, furnace oil, kerosene, HSD and petrol.
