NEW DELHI: The surge in oil prices over the past few months has impacted prices of food items resulting in retail inflation for industrial workers going up by 3.24 per cent in October 2017 compared to 2.89 per cent in September. The index was 3.35 per cent the corresponding month of the previous year.
The government has been compiling consumer price index for industrial workers (CPI-IW) since October 1946 and the labour ministry releases the numbers. Till 1982, the coverage of CPI-IW was limited to industrial workers in three sectors. Thereafter, it was extended to seven sectors.
CPI-IW provides price indices for 78 different centres and is utilised for fixation and revision of wages and for determining inflation compensation to workers in organised sectors of the economy. For example, the data reflects that at the centre level, indices of Darjeeling and Tiruchirapally reported the highest increase (of 10 points each) followed by Munger-Jamalpur (8 points) and Puducherry (7 points).
Monetary policy reviews in the past, while discussing retail price inflation, occasionally discussed CPI-IW movements. “There is not much difference between CPI and CPI-IW, but it gives the MPC enough data to analyse the course correction based on a bigger pool,” said Ranen Banerjee, partner - public finance and economics at PwC India.
Food inflation was recorded at 2.26 per cent against 1.3 per cent in September and 2.99 per cent the same period last year. Food group contributed 1.94 percentage points to the total change. The all-India CPI-IW for October 2017 rose by 2 points and to 287.
Among others, a six-point increase was observed in two centres, five points in eight centres, four points in seven centres, three points in eight centres, two points in 19 centres and one point in 14 centres. “On the contrary, Mercara recorded a maximum decrease of 4 points followed by Goa and Bhavnagar (3 points each). Among others, 2 points decrease was observed in 1 centre and 1 point in another 6 centres. Rest of the 6 centres’ indices remained stationary,” the labour ministry statement noted.