India’s WPI inflation spikes to 15.08% in April: Govt data

The wholesale price index (WPI) grew 14.55 per cent during the month of March, while the WPI for February was revised to 13.11 per cent from 13.43 per cent, the data showed. The WPI in April 2021 was at 10.74 per cent.

The WPI inflation has remained in the double digits for the 13th consecutive month starting from April 2021.

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

The food articles segment witnessed a rise of 8.35 per cent in April, the data showed. In the month prior to that, this was 8.06 per cent. The marginal month-on-month rise can be attributed to a rise in vegetable prices.

Vegetable prices rose 23.24 per cent in April, against a rise of 19.88 per cent in March, the data showed. Prices of potato climbed 19.84 per cent while that of onions slipped (-)4.02 per cent. However the prices of fruits witnessed a spike of 10.89 per cent last month from 10.62 per cent in March, while that of wheat eased to 10.70 per cent from 14.04 per cent a month ago. Eggs, meat and fish prices eased to 4.50 per cent in April from 9.42 per cent a month ago and cereals rose 7.80 per cent last month in comparison to 8.12 per cent in March.

The fuel and power segment spiked to 38.66 per cent last month from 34.52 per cent in March. Petrol price rose by 60.63 per cent, HSD (High-Speed Diesel) gained by 66.14 per cent and LPG prices inched by 38.48 per cent.

The manufactured products segment rose 10.85 per cent in April, up from 10.71 per cent in the month prior.

In a separate data released last week, the country’s retail inflation, which is measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), rose to a near 8-year high of 7.79 per cent in the month of April.