This is almost half a percentage point lower than the point-to-point rate of annual inflation for IW for the previous month April at 5.54 per cent. It is, however, way below the 7.71 per cent for the same month in the previous year.

Even as the all-India point-to-point inflation has declined at the disaggregated level, the all-India index has increased by two points to stand at 440 points, according to the data released by the department of labour.

As many as 42 centres have reported an increase in index between one to ten points, while in five centres it remained constant and in 23 centres it recorded decrease of one to eight points as compared to that of the previous month.

For the latest recorded period, Mumbai and Howrah centres have experienced the highest increase of 10 points each. The Mumbai centre reported a spurt in prices which was mainly on account of increase in prices of rice, wheat, fish, fresh vegetables and fruits items.

On the other hand, the Monghyr-Jamalpur and Agra centres experienced the decrease in index by eight points each. The fall in the indices in Monghyr-Jamalpur centre was mainly on account of softening in prices of wheat, atta, vegetables and fruits and sugar. In the case of Agra, the softening of items like wheat, atta and mustard oil mainly contributed for decline of index.

The centres in which the index remained stationary for the above mentioned period were Guntur, Gudur, Yamunangar, Ahmedabad and Rourkela.

The indices for the six main centres for the month under review stood the highest for Delhi at 518 while it stood at 439 for Ahmedabad, at 425 for Bangalore, at 439 for Calcutta, at 477 for Chennai. The index for Mumbai stood at the second highest level at 511. Economist unanimously agree that even as the wholesale price index based inflation rate has tended to push up the CPI-based inflation but the reverse is quite untrue. In the previous month April, the point-to-point annual inflation for industrial workers (IW) had closed up to the critical six per cent level by rising to a high of 5.54 per cent.

At this level, the all-India consumer price index for April had shown a rise by four points to stand at 438 points for April as compared to 434 for March this year.

Of all the India centres that report for the CPI-based annual rate of inflation for IW, there was change ranging from one to 17 points witnessed in the case of 53 centres; while five centres recorded no change and as many as 12 centres recorded decrease of one to seven points when compared to that of the previous month.

The CPI-based annual inflation rate as per the consumer price index for industrial workers (CPI-IW) had been on an upward trend since the beginning of the current calender year.

It has however only shown a trend of easing for first time in this period."A major prop that was fuelling the growth CPI-based inflation rate is the spurt in the WPI-based inflation. Not only has the WPI-based inflation has direct correlation with the CPI-based inflation but moreover the relation is one way, as the CPI-based inflation goes up with the upward trend in the WPI," says a leading economist BB Bhatacharya.

Annual rate of inflation for consumers in both the rural and urban areas have shown signs of easing of late. For the latest recorded period May, the point-to-point annual rate of inflation based on consumer price index for agricultural labourers (AL) has eased to 4.03 per cent from 4.07 per cent in the previous month.

At the same time that for the rural labourers (RL) has also eased albeit marginally to stand 4.01 per cent from 4.05 per cent for the previous month April, 2000.