Retail inflation for industrial workers rises to 6.16% in January

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Retail inflation for industrial workers rose to 6.16 per cent in January from 5.50 per cent in December, mainly due to rise in prices of certain food items.

In a statement on Tuesday, the labour ministry also said that food inflation stood at 5.69 per cent in January as against 4.10 per cent in December. In January 2022, it stood at 6.22 per cent.

"Year-on-Year inflation for the month (of January) stood at 6.16 per cent compared to 5.50 per cent for the previous month (of December 2022) and 5.84 per cent during the corresponding month (January 2022) a year before," the labour ministry said.

The All-India CPI-IW (Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers) for January increased by 0.5 points to 132.8 points compared to December 2022.

The maximum upward pressure in the current index came from the housing group, which contributed 0.40 percentage points to the total change.

On an item basis, house rent, wheat, wheat atta, cow milk, apple, banana, orange, brinjal, lady finger, kundru, cumin seed/jira, egg hen, cooked meal, pan finished, zarda, medicine allopathic and toilet soap, among others, became costlier.

According to the statement, the increase was largely checked by fall in prices of potato, poultry chicken, sunflower oil, cabbage, carrot, cauliflower, peas, onion, soyabean oil, capsicum, french beans, green coriander leaves, radish and tomato, among other commodities.

In terms of the index, Coimbatore recorded the maximum increase of 3 points while Labac-Silchar registered the maximum decrease of 1.5 points.

The Labour Bureau, an attached office of the Ministry of Labour & Employment, has been compiling CPI-IW every month. It is based on retail prices collected from 317 markets spread over 88 industrially important centres in the country.