The Labour Ministry has issued a statement as per which the retail inflation for industrial workers has gone up to touch 6.6 per cent during January 2019 owing to high prices of certain food products. The Consumer Prices Index (CPI-IW) for industrial workers for the same period during the previous year was seen at 5.11 per cent (January 2018).

Rallying food prices have attributed to the rise in retail inflation during the first month of the year 2019. During December 2018, the CPI-IW stood at 5.24 per cent.

The ministry also noted that the All-India CPI-IW for January 2019 has rallied up by 6 points and has gained 307 points. The data threw light that the maximum upward pressure which helped to gain more points came from the Housing group which contributed 5.16 per cent points.

The following list of items led to the rise in points - tomato, goat meat, wheat, flowers, lady' finger, arhar dal and so on. The prices of some of the food products also declined to counter the retail inflation and it includes carrot, onion, peas, brinjal, onion, cauliflower, potato, gourd, electricity charges, cooking gas (LPG) and so on.