Retail price inflation in India for goods consumed by agricultural and rural labourers fell
sharply by up to 2 percentage points in July, mainly due to higher rise in prices experienced in the previous month.
Inflation based on Consumer Price Index for Agricultural Labourer (CPI-AL) fell to 11.02 per cent in July from 13.02 per cent a month ago in June, as per the data released Friday.
It was 12.90 per cent in July, 2009.
The retail inflation based on Consumer Price Index for Rural Labourer (CPI-RL) declined to 11.24 per cent in July from 13.02 per cent in June and 12.67 per cent in July, 2009.
The all-India Consumer Price Index numbers for both agricultural and rural labourers, on which this inflation is based, rose by 7 points each month-on-month to 554 points each in July.
With this decline, consumer price inflation and wholesale price inflation moved a bit closer to each other.
Wholesale price inflation stood at 9.97 per cent in July.
This may partly be attributed to moderating rate of price rise in food items, as they have bigger weight in consumer price indices.
The rise or fall in index varied from state to state, the Ministry of Labour and Employment said in a statement.
In case of farm labourers, it recorded a rise of 2 to 15 points in 19 states, and decrease of 2 points in 1 state.
In case of rural labourers, it recorded a rise of 3 to 14 points in 19 states, and decline by 1 point in 1 state.
"The consumer price index numbers of Gujarat and West Bengal states registered the maximum increase of 15 points each for agricultural labourers and 14 points each for rural labourers," said the Labour Ministry.
The hike in both series and in both states was mainly due to rise in the prices of rice, wheat atta, chira, groundnut oil, onion, chillies green, turmeric, vegetables and fruits, bidi and shirting cloth, it said.
On the other hand, the consumer price index numbers of Andhra Pradesh state decreased by 2 points and 1 point for agricultural labourers and rural labourers respectively mainly due to decrease in the prices of arhar dal, chillies green and vegetables and fruits, it added.