The Hindu : New Delhi News : Price surge confined to select commodities: Centre

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Price surge confined to select commodities: Centre

Special Correspondent

Current bout of inflation largely commodity-centric
Prices of bajra, moong, urad, potatoes and onions have declined

NEW DELHI: With criticism mounting of the government’s failure to stem the price spiral, the Finance Ministry has maintained that the increase was not across the board but was confined to petroleum products and select commodities such as milk and iron and steel.

In a statement here, the Ministry said the government “is taking measures to moderate inflationary pressures.” It pointed out that even when the inflation rate soared to a 13-year high at 11.42 per cent in the week ended June 14, the prices of 206 commodities either remained stable or declined during the period begun January 5 this year.

The current bout of inflation was largely commodity-centric in that 60 per cent of the surge in inflation in the primary articles category was on account of five commodities — iron ore, cotton, milk, sea fish and oranges. Alongside, in the category of manufactured goods, 60 per cent of the price rise was caused by the spurt in the prices of eight products, six of them in the iron and steel sector.

As for the fuel and lubricants group, the inflationary spiral was on account of the hike in the prices of petrol, diesel and cooking gas, coupled with the soaring prices of petroleum products, which were not under the administered pricing mechanism.

The statement pointed out that among 30 essential commodities, the prices of bajra, moong, urad, potatoes, onions and fish (inland) witnessed a decline.

Besides, the consumer price index-based inflation for goods used by industrial workers actually declined from 7.81 p.c. in April to 7.75 p. c. in May this year.

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