India’s annual rate of inflation, based on monthly wholesale price index (WPI), stood at 4.53 per cent for the month of August 2018 over same month of last year. The index for apparel increased by 0.7 per cent to 139.1 in August, 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 August 2018 rose by 0.3 per cent to 120.0 from the previous month’s level of 119.7, the data showed.
The index for manufactured products (weight 64.23 per cent) for August 2018 rose by 0.3 per cent to 117.8 from 117.4 for the previous month. The index for ‘Manufacture of Wearing Apparel’ sub-group rose by 0.7 per cent to 139.1 from 138.2 for the previous month due to higher price of knitted and crocheted apparel (1 per cent).
The index for ‘Manufacture of Textiles’ sub-group also rose by 0.4 per cent to 117.6 from 117.1 for the previous month due to higher price of madeup textile articles, except apparel (2 per cent); and synthetic yarn, texturised & twisted yarn, manufacture of knitted & crocheted fabrics and cotton yarn (1 per cent each). However, the price of manufacture of other textiles (1 per cent) declined.
The index for primary articles (weight 22.62 per cent) rose by 0.1 per cent to 135.1 from 134.9 for the previous month. The index for fuel and power (weight 13.15 per cent) also rose by 0.5 per cent to 104.9 from 104.4 for the previous month due to higher price of LPG, petroleum coke, kerosene, ATF, naphtha and bitumen. Meanwhile, the all-India consumer price index (CPI) on base 2012=100 stood at 3.69 (provisional) in August 2018 compared to 4.17 (final) in July, 2018 and 3.28 in August, 2017, according to the Central Statistics Office, Ministry of Statistics and programme implementation.
