India’s annual rate of inflation, based on monthly wholesale price index (WPI), stood at 3.07 per cent for the month of April 2019. The index for textiles rose by 0.6 per cent while for apparel it was up by 0.4 per cent in April, 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 April 2019 rose by 0.8 per cent to 120.9 from the previous month’s level of 120.0, the data showed. The index for manufactured products (weight 64.23 per cent) for April 2019 remained unchanged at its previous month level of 118.3. The index for ‘Manufacture of Wearing Apparel’ sub-group rose by 0.4 per cent to 138.5 from 138.0 for the previous month due to higher price of knitted and crocheted apparel (2 per cent). The index for ‘Manufacture of Textiles’ sub-group rose by 0.6 per cent to 119.4 from 118.7 for the previous month due to higher price of manufacture of cordage, rope, twine and netting (2 per cent) and cotton yarn and weaving and finishing of textiles (1 per cent each). However, the price of woollen yarn declined by one per cent. The index for primary articles (weight 22.62 per cent) rose by 3.3 per cent to 139.2 from 134.7 for the previous month. The index for fuel and power (weight 13.15 per cent) declined by 0.5 per cent to 102.8 from 103.3 for the previous month due to higher price of LPG, naphtha, petrol, kerosene, and ATF. However, the price of petroleum coke, furnace oil and HSD declined. Meanwhile, the all-India consumer price index (CPI) on base 2012=100 stood at 2.92 (provisional) in April 2019 compared to 2.86 (final) in March 2019 and 4.58 in April 2018, according to the Central Statistics Office, ministry of statistics and programme implementation.
