New Delhi, Jan 1 (KNN) Inflation measured by prices of goods mostly consumed by industrial workers went up further to 11.47 per cent for November, 2013 from 11.06 per cent in the previous month, a development which is exerting wage pressure on the industry, hitting small and medium enterprises in particular. Bokaro witnessed the highest pace of price rise.
 
The inflation, especially at the retail level is causing a double whammy for SMEs. On the one hand, their cost of raw material and labour goes up while it also leads to demand compression.   
 
The Consumer Price Index (Industrial Workers) was 9.55 per cent during the corresponding month of the previous year. Similarly, the food inflation stood at 16.17 per cent against 15.02 per cent of the previous month and 10.85 per cent during the corresponding month of the previous year, according to official data.    
 
The industrial town of Bokaro recorded the highest increase of 11 points each followed by Giridih, Kodarma and Angul-Talcher (9 points each), Munger-Jamalpur (8 points) and Rourkela, Sholapurand Raniganj (7 points each). On the contrary, Surat centre reported a decline of 6 points followed by Amritsar, Bhavnagar and Vadodara (4 points each), Coonoor and Nagpur (2 points each) and Ahmedabad centre one point.
 
The indices of 40 centres are above All-India Index and other 38 centres’ indices are below national average. The index of Tiruchirapally centre remained at par with all-India index. 

The Reserve Bank of India and the government have been battling for control of prices at the retail level. In the process, the RBI has kept a tight leash on the money supply in a bid to contain demand. While the move has had impact on the manufacturing sector, the prices have kept a high pace in regard to items of food and fruits, vegetables. (KNN Bureau)