India’s WPI inflation spikes to 13.11% in February: Govt data

🗞️ Subscribe Now: Get Express Premium to access the best Election reporting and analysis 🗞️

The wholesale price index (WPI) grew 12.96 per cent during the month of January, while the WPI for December last year was revised to 14.27 per cent from 13.56 per cent, the data showed. The WPI in February 2021 was at 4.83 per cent.

The WPI inflation has remained in the double digits for the 11th consecutive month beginning April 2021.

“The high rate of inflation in February, 2022 is primarily due to rise in prices of mineral oils, basic metals, chemicals and chemical products, crude petroleum & natural gas, food articles and non-food articles etc. as compared to the corresponding month of the previous year,” the government press release said.

The food articles segment witnessed a rise of 8.19 per cent in February, the data showed. In the month prior to that, this was 10.33 per cent. The month-on-month easing can be attributed to a fall in vegetable prices.

Vegetable prices rose 26.93 per cent in February, against a sharp rise of 38.45 per cent in January, the data showed. Prices of potato climbed 14.78 per cent while that of onions slipped (-)26.37 per cent. Prices of fruits too witnessed eased to 10.30 per cent last month from 12.50 per cent in January, while that of wheat rose 11.03 per cent from 10.40 per cent a month ago. Eggs, meat and fish prices rose 8.14 per cent in February down from 9.85 per cent a month ago while cereals rose 6.07 per cent last month from 5.48 per cent.

The fuel and power segment marginally eased to 31.50 per cent last month from 32.27 per cent in January. Petrol price rose by 58.33 per cent, HSD (High-Speed Diesel) gained by 53.59 per cent and LPG prices inched by 26.27 per cent.

The manufactured products segment rose 9.84 per cent in February, up from 9.42 per cent in the month prior.

The government will release separate data on the retail inflation or consumer price index (CPI) later today.