NEW DELHI, Sept 14:
Wholesale prices in August rose at the fastest pace in four months as vegetables, onions and fuel became costlier.
Official data released on Thursday showed that Wholesale Price Index
(WPI) based inflation rose to 3.24 per cent in August as against 1.09
per cent a year ago. It stood at 1.88 per cent in July this year.
Before this WPI inflation was at its highest in April at 3.85 per cent.
Inflation in the WPI Food Index consisting of food articles from primary
articles group and food products from manufactured products group
increased to 4.41 per cent in August from 2.12 per cent in July.
Inflation in food articles doubled in August to 5.75 per cent from 2.15 per cent in July.
The sharpest rise in inflation was in onion, which soared 88.46 per cent
in August as against a contraction of 9.5 per cent in July.
Similarly, prices of other vegetables at the wholesale level also shot
up by 44.91 per cent in August, as compared with 21.95 per cent in July.
Wholesale inflation in fuel and power also touched near double digits at 9.99 per cent in August against 4.37 per cent in July.
With international prices on the rise, WPI inflation in petrol and high
speed diesel soared by 24.55 per cent and 20.3 per cent respectively in
August. It was much lower at 9.6 per cent for petrol and 5.49 per cent
for diesel in July.
Wholesale inflation in manufactured products witnessed a marginal rise
at 2.45 per cent in August, against 2.18 per cent in July.
Analysts believe that the rising retail and wholesale inflation will
likely mean a pause in the monetary easing by the Reserve Bank of India
in its next policy review in October.
“Core inflation rose substantially in August 2017, reflecting the base
effect and the rise in metal prices,” said Aditi Nayar, Principal
Economist ICRA, adding that despite the rise in crude oil prices, the
subsequent upside risk posed by it is likely to be limited.
Data released earlier this week had revealed that retail inflation rose
to a five-month high of 3.36 per cent in August due to costlier
vegetables and fruits.
