WPI inflation accelerates to 3.55 percent in July

India’s Wholesale price index (WPI) inflation surged to a near two-year high at 3.55 percent month-on-month in July, on the back of dearer food and vegetable prices in the country. Industrial inflation climbed to 1.8 percent from 1.17 percent last month, while Food Inflation too increased to 11.82 percent from 8.18 percent last month. Food prices have been rising in the country on the back of a dismal monsoon last year. Meanwhile, for the month of May, 2016, the final Wholesale Price Index was revised upward to 1.24 percent as compared to 0.79 percent (provisional).

As per the data of Ministry of Commerce & Industry, the annual rate of inflation, based on monthly WPI, stood at 3.55% (provisional) for the month of July, 2016 over July, 2015, as compared to 1.62% (provisional) for the previous month and -4.00% during the corresponding month of the previous year. Build up inflation rate in the financial year so far was 4.91% compared to a build up rate of 0.85% in the corresponding period of the previous year.

Component wise, primary articles index, having weight of 20.12 percent, witnessed a rise of 2.5 percent to 269.5 (provisional) from 262.8 (provisional) for the previous month. Among the primary articles, the index for ‘Food Articles’ group rose by 2.4 percent to 285.8 (provisional) from 279.0 (provisional) for the previous month. The index for ‘Non-Food Articles’ group rose by 2.3 percent to 236.6 (provisional) from 231.2 (provisional) for the previous month and the index for ‘Minerals’ group rose by 5.0 percent to 208.9 (provisional) from 199.0 (provisional) for the previous month.

Fuel & Power index having weight of 14.91% rose by 0.8 percent to 187.9 (provisional) from 186.5 (provisional) for the previous month.

Manufactured Products index having weight of 64.97% rose by 0.3 percent to 156.4 (provisional) from 156.0 (provisional) for the previous month. Among the items in the group, the index for ‘Food Products’ group rose by 1.2 percent to 189.2 (provisional) from 186.9 (provisional) for the previous month, index for ‘Textiles’ group rose by 0.4 percent to 141.5 (provisional) from 140.9 (provisional), index for ‘Paper & Paper Products’ group rose by 0.5 percent to 156.7 (provisional) from 155.9 (provisional), index for ‘Leather & Leather Products’ group rose by 0.5 percent to 146.3 (provisional) from 145.5 (provisional), index for ‘Rubber & Plastic Products’ group rose by 0.3 percent to 146.5 (provisional) from 146.1 (provisional), index for ‘Chemicals & Chemical Products’ group rose by 0.1 percent to 151.1 (provisional) from 150.9 (provisional), index for ‘Non-Metallic Mineral Products’ group rose by  0.5 percent to 178.6 (provisional) from 177.7 (provisional), index for ‘Basic Metals, Alloys & Metal Products’ group declined by 0.6 percent to 153.0 (provisional) from 153.9 (provisional) for the previous month, while the index for ‘Wood & Wood Products’ group declined by 0.3 percent to 196.1 (provisional) from 196.6 (provisional) for the previous month.