For the third straight month, the All India Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers for September 2017 remained stationary at 285, according to the Labour Bureau.
Retail inflation based on the CPI-IW rose to 2.89 per cent for September, against 2.52 per cent in August and 2.36 per cent in July. “On one-month percentage change, it remained static between August 2017 and September 2017 compared with the decrease of (-) 0.36 per cent for the corresponding months of last year,” an official release said.
Year-on-year inflation measured by monthly CPI-IW stood at 2.89 per cent for September 2017, compared with 2.52 per cent for August and 4.14 per cent during the corresponding month last year.
Food inflation stood at (+) 1.30 per cent against (+) 1.61 per cent in August and 4.05 per cent during the corresponding month last year. In July, food inflation stood at (-) 0.3 per cent.
The index, which measures the consumption expenditure on a basket of goods and services by a section of the population, saw maximum downward pressure from the food group, which contributed (-) 1.26 percentage points to the total change.
At item level, fresh fish, onion, bitter gourd, brinjal, carrot, gourd, lady’s finger, potato, tomato, torai, cucumber, apple, banana, etc. were responsible for the decrease in index, said the release.
However, the decrease in the CPI was checked by rice, wheat atta, arhar dal, coconut oil, poultry (chicken), cooking gas, petrol, among other things.
At the centre level, Tiruchi, Varanasi, Lucknow, Quilon and Salem reported the maximum decrease of 4 points each followed by Giridih, Bhilwara, Raniganj, Bengaluru, Faridabad, Visakhapathnam, Jamshedpur and Haldia (3 points each).