Consumer price inflation for industrial workers falls to 3.67% in December

Food inflation stood at 2.89 per cent in December 2020 against 7.48 per cent in the previous month and 12.22 per cent during the corresponding month a year ago.

In percentage terms, it went down by 0.92 per cent compared to the  previous month, mainly due to food group items having a share of 39.17 per cent in the total weight which recorded a fall of 3.16 per cent between these two months. 

During the period, decrease in prices of food items, viz, rice, poultry (chicken), orange, brinjal, cabbage, cauliflower, carrot, green chillies, ginger, onion, peas, potato, tomato, etc  had greater impact on the index.

The All-India CPI-IW for December 2020 decreased by 1.1 points and stood at 118.8. On 1-month percentage change, it decreased by (-) 0.92 per cent between November and December 2020 compared to a 0.61 per cent increase between corresponding months of the previous year.

The maximum downward pressure in current index came from food and beverages group contributing (-) 1.53 percentage points to the total change. At item level, rice, poultry (chicken), orange, brinjal, cabbage, cauliflower, carrot, green chillies, ginger, onion, peas, potato, tomato, etc are responsible for the decline in index. However, this decline was checked by an upward pressure in the prices of soyabean oil, mustard oil, sunflower oil, tea leaf, cooking gas, petrol etc.

At centre level, Ramgarh recorded the maximum decrease of 6 points. Among others, 4 points decrease was observed in 3 centres,3 points each in 7 centres, 2 points each in 29 centres and 1 point each in 24 centres. 

On the other hand, Solapur recorded a maximum increase of 2 points. Among others, 1 point rise was observed in 5 centres. Indices for the remaining 18 centres remained stationary.