India’s annual rate of inflation, based on monthly wholesale price index (WPI), stood at 5.77 per cent for the month of June 2018 over same month of last year. The index for apparel decreased by 1.3 per cent to 139.2 in June, 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 June 2018 rose by 1.1 per cent to 119.2 from the previous month’s level of 117.9, the data showed. The index for manufactured products (weight 64.23 per cent) for June 2018 rose by 0.4 per cent to 117.3 from 116.8 for the previous month. The index for ‘Manufacture of Wearing Apparel’ sub-group declined by 1.3 per cent to 139.2 from 141.0 for the previous month due to lower price of woven apparel, except fur apparel (2 per cent).
On the other hand, the index for ‘Manufacture of Textiles’ sub-group rose by 0.3 per cent to 115.9 from 115.5 for the previous month due to higher price of other textiles (2 per cent); synthetic yarn, cotton yarn, viscose yarn, made-up textile articles (except apparel), and knitted and crocheted fabrics (1 per cent each). However, the price of woolen yarn (1 per cent) declined.
The index for primary articles (weight 22.62 per cent) rose by 2.0 per cent to 133.2 from 130.6 for the previous month. The index for fuel and power (weight 13.15 per cent) also rose by 3.0 per cent to 104.1 from 101.1 for the previous month due to higher price of furnace oil, ATF, LPG, naphtha, bitumen, HSD, petrol, kerosene, and petroleum coke. Meanwhile, the all-India consumer price index (CPI) on base 2012=100 stood at 5.00 (provisional) in June 2018 compared to 4.87 (final) in May, 2018 and 1.46 in June, 2017, according to the Central Statistics Office, Ministry of statistics and programme implementation.