India’s Wholesale Inflation Hits Four-Month High In April
Wholesale price-based inflation rose to 3.18 percent, as against a consensus estimate of 2.9 percent.
Wholesale prices in India hit a four-month high in April due to increasing prices of crude oil and food articles.
Inflation measured by the Wholesale Price Index stood at 3.18 percent last month, according to a Ministry of Commerce and Industry release. A Bloomberg poll of economists had estimated the wholesale inflation for last month at around 2.9 percent. The WPI in March touched an eight-month low of 2.47 percent.
Prices of food articles rose by 0.87 percent from last year, led by higher price of tea, peas, and fruits and vegetables. Prices of pulses, eggs, betel leaves and poultry chicken declined. Fuel, power and lighting prices climbed 7.85 percent year-on-year on rising fuel cost.
The Reserve Bank of India, in its April monetary policy meet, had flagged off upside risks to inflation, emerging from strengthening aggregate demand, fiscal slippage and global crude oil prices.
Prices of minerals rose 4.56 percent as coal prices and petroleum coke prices advanced. Manufacturing products’ prices also rose 3.11 percent from last year due to increasing prices of metals manufacturing, vegetable and animal oils processing.
Other Highlights (YoY):
- Potato prices surged 67.9 percent.
- Prices of fruits advances 19.5 percent.
- Liquefied petroleum gas prices declined 11.7 percent.
- Prices of pulses dropped 22.5 percent.