retail inflation
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Expansion
The country’s wholesale inflation rate reached a 15-month high of 2.61% in May. It was 1.26 percent in the month of April. Wholesale food inflation rose to 7.4 percent in May, up from 5.5 percent in April and 4.82 percent in May 2023. Wholesale prices increased by 0.2 percent on a monthly basis in May.
Wholesale Price Index based inflation rose for the third consecutive month to 2.61 percent in May due to rising prices of food items, especially vegetables and manufactured goods. Wholesale Price Index (WPI) based inflation was 1.26 percent in the previous month. It was (-) 3.61 percent in May 2023.
“The positive rate of inflation in May, 2024 is mainly due to increase in prices of food articles, manufacture of food products, crude petroleum and natural gas, mineral oils, other manufactures, etc,” the Ministry of Commerce and Industry said in a statement on Friday.
According to the data, inflation in food items rose by 9.82 percent in May as against 7.74 percent in April. Inflation in vegetables was 32.42 percent in May as against 23.60 percent in the previous month. Inflation in onion was 58.05 percent and in potato it was 64.05 percent. Inflation in pulses rose by 21.95 percent in May.
Inflation in the fuel and power basket stood at 1.35 per cent, slightly lower than the 1.38 per cent inflation in April. Inflation in manufactured products rose to 0.78 per cent from (-) 0.42 per cent in April.
The rise in the wholesale price index in May is in contrast to the retail inflation data for this month. The Reserve Bank of India mainly takes into account retail inflation while formulating monetary policy.
Retail inflation fell to a one-year low of 4.75 per cent in May, according to data released earlier this week. The RBI kept interest rates unchanged for the eighth consecutive time earlier this month.