New Delhi: The retail inflation for industrial workers measured through the Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers (CPI-IW) dipped to 5.1% in May due to lower prices of certain food items and kerosene oil.
“Inflation based on all items stood at 5.10% for May, 2020 as compared to 5.45% for the previous month (April 2020) and 8.65% during the corresponding month (May 2019) of the previous year,” a labour ministry statement said.
Similarly, as per the data, food inflation stood at 5.88% against 6.56% in the previous month and 5.21% in May 2019.
The Labour Bureau, under the Ministry of Labour & Employment, has been compiling CPI-IW every month on the basis of the retail prices of select items collected from 289 markets spread over 78 industrially important centres in the country.
The hike in dearness allowance and dearness relief for over one crore central government employees and pensioners is worked out on the basis of CPI-IW.
The All-India CPI-IW for May 2020 increased by 1 point and stood at 330. On 1-month percentage change, it increased by 0.30% between April and May, 2020 compared to 0.64% increase between the same months of the previous year.
The maximum upward pressure on the index came from food group which contributed 0.67 percentage points rise to the total change.
At commodity level, Arhar Dal, Masur Dal, Moong Dal, Urd Dal, Groundnut Oil, Mustard Oil, Fish Fresh, Goat Meat, Poultry (Chicken), Milk, Cabbage, French Bean, Green Coriander Leaves, Potato, Country Liquor, Refined Liquor, Cooking Gas, Petrol, etc. are responsible for the increase in index, the data showed.
However, this increase was checked by Rice, Wheat, Garlic, Onion, Bitter Gourd, Coconut, Gourd, Lady Finger, Mango, Parval, Tomato, Torai, Banana, Kerosene Oil, etc, putting downward pressure on the index, it stated.
