Team News Riveting
New Delhi, January 14
India’s wholesale price index (WPI) based inflation rose to 2.37 per cent in December from 1.89 per cent in November 2024 due to the rise in prices of manufactured items and a low base effect even though prices of food items eased.
A government data released on Tuesday showed the wholesale price index (WPI) based inflation stood at 0.86 per cent in December last year. The data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, however, showed that inflation in food items declined slightly to 8.47 per cent in December from 8.63 per cent in November. This was led by deceleration in the prices of cereals (6.82 per cent), paddy (6.93 per cent), wheat (7.63 per cent) and pulses (5.02 per cent).
Meanwhile, the prices of vegetables (28.65 per cent), potatoes (93.2 per cent), fruits (11.16 per cent), milk (2.26 per cent) and meat (5.43 per cent) accelerated during December. The fuel and power category continued to witness deflation (-3.79 per cent) in December.
In the manufactured products category that has a weightage of 64.2 per cent in the index, inflation increased to 2.14 per cent in December from 2 per cent in November.
Earlier on Monday, India’s retail inflation rate, based on the consumer price index (CPI), fell slightly to a four-month low of 5.22 per cent in December from 5.48 per cent in November, driven by easing food inflation. Overall, with retail inflation remaining above 5 per cent, the hopes of a much-anticipated policy rate cut by the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) in the February review have receded.
