India’s annual rate of inflation, based on monthly wholesale price index (WPI), stood at 0.79 per cent for May 2016 (over May 2015), according to the provisional data released by the Office of the Economic Adviser, Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

In comparison, annual rate of inflation was 0.34 per cent for April 2016 and minus 2.20 per cent during May 2015. Build up inflation rate in the financial year 2016-17 so far was 2.34 per cent compared to a build up rate of 1.08 per cent in the corresponding period of the previous year.

Meanwhile, the official WPI for all commodities (Base: 2004-05 = 100) for the month of May, 2016 rose by 1.4 per cent to 179.4 from 177.0 for the previous month.

The index for manufactured products (weight 64.97 per cent) for May, 2016 rose by 0.5 per cent to 155.7 from 155.0 for the previous month. The index for textiles sub-group rose by 0.5 per cent to 140.6 from 139.9 for the previous month due to higher price of jute sacking bag (3 per cent), gunny and hessian cloth (2 per cent) and cotton yarn and cotton fabric (1 per cent each).

The index for primary articles (weight 20.12 per cent) rose by 2.4 per cent to 255.3 from 249.3 for the previous month. On the other hand, the index for fuel and power (weight 14.91 per cent) rose by 2.8 per cent to 180.3 from 175.4 for the previous month due to higher prices of furnace oil, high speed diesel, kerosene, aviation turbine fuel, petrol and bitumen.

Meanwhile, the all-India consumer price index (CPI) on base 2012=100 stood at 5.76 (provisional) in May, 2016 compared to 5.47 in April, 2016 and 5.01 in May, 2015, according to the Central Statistics Office, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.