MUMBAI: Primary articles led by food items have the highest share in overall price index at a whopping 35.7% and are mainly responsible for high inflation, Care Ratings has said in a report.
The manufactured items basket, though having the highest weight, contributes the least to the overall inflation index, it said.
This is despite the fact that primary articles have only 20.1% weight in the overall inflation basket, but contributed to a 35.7% to spike in the overall price index, followed by fuel and power basket, which has the lowest weight (14.9 percent), contributing to 33.4% to the overall inflation, the report said.
Against this, the manufactured products basket, which has the largest weight of 65% in the inflation basket, has contributed the least to the price spiral at 30.9%, it said.
The data, based on the WPI and CPI numbers for January 2014, is the latest inflation reading.
Among primary articles, food items, which though have only 14.3% weight, contributed 31% to the overall price index, while food grains with just 4.1% weight ramped the index by 6.5%. Cereals with 3.4% weight have 7.6% share in index, and pulses, carrying 0.7% weight, have -1.2% share.
This means that though food articles have 35.7% share in primary articles basket, their contribution to the total is 31.5%, with four products groups-cereals, vegetables, eggs meat and fish & milk products accounting for 27.5% of inflation.
—PTI

KR Desk