Retail inflation for industrial workers remained flat at 6.16 per cent in February compared to that of January this year.

"Year-on-year inflation for the month stood at 6.16 per cent compared to 6.16 per cent for the previous month (January, 2023) also and 5.04 per cent during the corresponding month (February 2022) a year before," a labour bureau statement said.

It stated that food inflation stood at 6.13 per cent against 5.69 per cent of the previous month and 5.09 per cent during the corresponding month a year ago.

The Labour Bureau, an attached office of the Ministry of Labour & Employment, has been compiling Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers (CPI-IW) every month on the basis of retail prices collected from 317 markets spread over 88 industrially important centres in the country.

The index is compiled for 88 centres and all-India and is released on the last working day of succeeding month.

The all-India CPI-IW for February 2023 decreased by 0.1 point and stood at 132.7 points. It was 132.8 points in January 2023.

On 1-month percentage change, it decreased by 0.08 per cent with respect to previous month.

A decrease of 0.08 per cent was recorded between corresponding months a year ago too.

The maximum downward pressure in current index came from food & beverages group contributing 0.1 percentage point to the total change.

At item level, cabbage, cauliflower, brinjal, carrot, onion, potato, peas, french-bean, drum stick, kundru, grapes, sunflower oil, soyabean oil, mustard oil, poultry/chicken, eggs-hen and fish fresh etc. are responsible for the fall in index.

However, this decrease was checked by rice, wheat, wheat atta, buffalo milk, cow milk, pure ghee, garlic, gourd, lady's finger, parwal, cumin seed/jira, apple, banana, mango, country liquor, foreign liquor and medicine allopathic, etc. putting upward pressure on the index.

At centre level, Raniganj, Jalpaiguri and Puduchery recorded a maximum decrease of 1.8 points each. Among others, 5 centres recorded decrease between 1 and 1.4 points and 32 centres between 0.1 and 0.9 points.

On the contrary, Amritsar recorded a maximum increase of 3.1 points. Among others, 7 centres recorded an increase from 1 to 1.9 points and 37 centres from 0.1 to 0.9 points. Rest of three centres' indices remained stationary.

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