India’s annual inflation rate, based on all India general Consumer Price Index, or CPI, as per base year 2010, for December stood at 10.56 percent, up from preceding month’s 9.90 percent as per the nation-wide retail inflation data released by the Ministry of Statistics & Program Implementation on Monday, led by increase in prices of food items, such as vegetables, oil and fats, cereals, sugar and pulses as well as clothing and fuel and light.
As per data, the corresponding inflation rate for rural was 10.74 percent, while that of urban was 10.42 percent. The overall data combine both urban and rural numbers.
The index on base year 2010=100 for all-India and States/Union Territories separately for rural, urban and combined every month from January was introduced by the Ministry of Statistics.
Vegetables were costlier by 25.71 percent on a nationwide basis in December over the same month last year, while oil and fats became dearer by 16.73 percent, cereals and products by 13.70 percent, sugar by 13.55 percent, and pulses and products by 13.46 percent in the month.
In rural and urban areas, inflation in the food and beverages category stood at 13.09 and 13.03 percent, respectively.
Clothing, bedding, footwear became 10.74 percent more expensive on an annual basis, while fuel and light went up by 8.23 percent in December.
The all India CPI will be in addition to the three retail price indices — for agricultural laborers, rural laborers and industrial workers — prepared by the Ministry of Labor.
The CPI, introduced a year ago, will exist alongside the prevailing WPI, followed in India to gauge inflation. Headline Inflation as measured by the WPI stood at 7.24 percent in November.
The CPI data tracks retail prices in five major food groups -fuel and light, housing, clothing and miscellaneous – across rural and urban India, providing a comprehensive reference point for the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to take effective monetary policy measures to deal with inflation.
by RTT Staff Writer
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