Costlier Food and Clothing pushed up Consumer Price Index (CPI) by 0.97% in October 2011

According to government data released on 18 November 2011, the Consumer Price  Index (CPI) was pushed up by 0.97% in October 2011 due to costlier food and clothing. The CPI based on retail prices stood at 113.1 points in September. At the all-India level, the CPI for food, beverages and tobacco went up by 1.06% to 114.4 points in October from 113.2 points in September. The main increase was seen in the prices of vegetables, with the index rising by 2.98% month-onmonth to 120.8 points, while the index for milk and milk product rose 1.52% to 120.4 points.

Analysis

The All-India Consumer Price Index Numbers for Agricultural Labourers and Rural Labourers (Base: 1986-87=100) for October 2011 increased by 4 points and 6 points respectively to stand at 619( Six hundred and nineteen)  points for Agricultural Labourers  and  620 (Six hundred and twenty) points for Rural Labourers.

The rise in index varied from State to State.  In case of Agricultural Labourers, it recorded an increase between 1 to 11 points in all the 20 States.  Haryana with 690 points topped the index table whereas Himachal Pradesh with the index level of 514 points stood at the bottom.

In case of Rural Labourers, it recorded an increase between 1 to 10 points in all the 20 States. Haryana with 683 points topped the index table whereas Himachal Pradesh with the index level of 535 points stood at the bottom.

The Consumer Price Index Numbers for Agricultural Labourers in respect of Himachal Pradesh State registered the maximum increase of 11 points mainly due to increase in the prices of rice, wheat atta, pulses, milk, ghee, vegetables & fruirs, sugar, electricity charges and anacin. The Consumer Price Index Numbers for Rural Labourers in respect of Karnataka State registered the maximum increase of 10 points mainly due to increase in the prices of jowar, ragi, milk, vegetables & fruits, pan leaf and anacin. 

Consumer price index (CPI), the main gauge of inflation, increased by 6.71 percent year-on-year in October 2011 spurred by higher transport and food prices, especially for fresh fish and meat. For the 12 months ended October 2011, the average composite CPI increased by 5.34 percent from the previous period.

Miscellaneous goods and services was the category of prices that registered the highest increase (over 10 percent), while food and non-alcoholic beverages and transport – on account of dearer prices of gasoline, gold jewellery, fresh fish and fresh pork – registered increases of 9.75 percent and 9.23 percent, respectively. In contrast, the price index of communication decreased by 14 percent year-on-year.

About CPI

Current CPI weights were introduced in January 2009 and is based on the 2005/06 survey. The CPI will be re-weighted four years after its last re-weighting, not according to the international norm of every five years. Stats SA's Living Conditions Survey (LCS) will be used to update CPI weights every three years, starting in 2016.

The CPI and PPI are indices compiled from the prices of weighted baskets of either consumer goods, like the goods people buy in supermarkets, or producer goods, like the goods which leave a factory after production. The indices have a base year, for which it is set at 100.

The monthly changes in the levels of the CPI and PPI are expressed as percentages, which is commonly known as the inflation rate for consumers or production.