Seen on a cumulative basis, the All-India CPI-UNME for the period of first nine months - April to December, has also registered a rise by 4.5 per cent as compared to the average of the data in the corresponding period in the previous year. The average index for the first three quarters of the current fiscal stands at 350 as compared to that of the corresponding period in the previous year which stood at 335.

The data was officially released on Friday by the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO), ministry of statistics and programme implementation. On a standalone basis, however, the index for the month of December has registered a decline by three points to stand at 354 as compared to that of the previousmonth of November when the all-india index stood at 357, as per the CSO. The index for latest month stands at 354 as compared to that of the same month in the previous year which stood at 345, thereby showing a rise of 2.6 per cent.

For the latest period, the changes amongst the 59 centres over which the data is collated has shown a variance in the annual inflation rate from (-) 3.5 per cent to as high as 16.7 per cent. The highest variation has been exhibited from the centre - Siliguri and the largest drop has been in the case of Gulbarga.

The increases range from (-) 3.5 per cent to zero percent in the case of ten centres; from 0.1 per cent to 3.0 per cent in the case of 23 centres; 3.1 per cent to 6.0 per cent in the case of 15 centres; 6.1 per cent to 9.0 per cent in the case of eight centres and more than nine per cent in the case of three centres, as per the CSO.

As many as 29 centres have shown lower annual percentage increase as compared to that of the all-india level of 2.6 per cent and as manyas 28 centres have shown a higher percentage increase in the inflation rate. While two centres have shown the same percentage increase as that of the all-india level of 2.6 per cent.