India’s annual rate of inflation, based on monthly Wholesale Price Index (WPI), stood at 3.18 per cent for the month of March 2019. The index for textiles fell by 0.3 per cent while for apparel it declined by 0.9 per cent in March, 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 March 2019 rose by 0.4 per cent to 120.0 from the previous month’s level of 119.5, the data showed. The index for manufactured products (weight 64.23 per cent) for March 2019 rose by 0.2 per cent to 118.3 from the previous month’s level of 118.1. The index for ‘Manufacture of Wearing Apparel’ sub-group declined by 0.9 per cent to 138.0 from 139.2 for the previous month due to lower price of woven apparel, except fur apparel (1 per cent).
The index for ‘Manufacture of Textiles’ sub-group declined by 0.3 per cent to 118.7 from 119.0 for the previous month due to lower price of manufacture of cordage, rope, twine and netting (3 per cent each), other textiles (2 per cent) and knitted and crocheted fabrics and cotton yarn (1 per cent each). However, the price of made-up textile articles, except apparel moved up one per cent.
The index for primary articles (weight 22.62 per cent) rose by 0.4 per cent to 134.7 from 134.2 for the previous month. The index for fuel and power (weight 13.15 per cent) rose by 2.3 per cent to 103.3 from 101.0 for the previous month due to higher price of ATF, naphtha, furnace oil, LPG, kerosene, petrol, petroleum coke, HSD and bitumen.
Meanwhile, the all-India consumer price index (CPI) on base 2012=100 stood at 2.86 (provisional) in March 2019 compared to 2.57 (final) in February 2019 and 4.28 in March 2018, according to the Central Statistics Office, Ministry of Statistics and Programme implementation.
