February 20, 2002

    The All-India Consumer Price Index for Agricultural Labourers (Base 1986-87 = 100) during January, 2002 decreased by 4 points over last month and the index for rural labouers fell by 3 points to stand at 308 and 311 respectively.

    In case of Agricultural Labourers, 17 States reflected decrease in indices between 1 to 9 points and 3 States showed increase in indices between 1 to 3 points.

    In the case of Rural Labourers, 18 States reflected decrease in indices between 1 to 9 points and 2 States showed increase in indices of 1 point each.

    Amongst the states, Orissa experienced sharpest decrease of 9 points each for Agricultural Labourers and Rural Labourers while Jammu & Kashmir recorded a maximum increase of 3 points in case of Agricultural Labourers whereas in respect of Rural Labourers, Jammu & Kashmir and Rajasthan recorded a maximum increase of one point each. Meghalaya continued to figure at the top of the index table for both Agricultural and Rural Labourers with 351 and 348 points respectively while Bihar (including Jharkhand) remained at the bottom with 291 and 292 points respectively.

    Point to point rate of inflation based on CPI-AL decreased from 2.97% in December 2001 to 2.33% during January, 2002. In case of the CPI-RL the inflation rate increased from 2.61% in the previous month to 2.64% during January 2002. Respective rates of inflation during January, 2001 were (-) 1.95% and (-) 1.62%.

All-India Consumer Price Index (General & Group-wise)

GROUP	Agricultural Labourers		Rural Labourers
	December, 2001	January, 2002	December, 2001	January, 2002
General Index	312	308	314	311
Food	306	300	307	301
Pan, Supari etc	366	368	367	369
Fuel & Light	311	312	311	312
Clothing, Bedding & Footwear	328	329	337	337
Miscellaneous	322	323	322	323