Wholesale inflation hits a two-month high in December but don’t just blame food
Live MintNew Delhi: India’s wholesale price index-based inflation climbed to a two-month high of 2.37% year-on-year in December, according to the provisional data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry on Tuesday. While overall food inflation slowed in December from the previous month, the prices of onion, fruits, eggs, meat and fish rose at a higher pace during the month as compared to November. However, the relatively lower weight of vegetables in the WPI vis-à-vis the CPI would limit the benefits on this account to the headline WPI inflation in the month,” said Rahul Agrawal, senior economist at Icra Ltd. Agrawal expects WPI-based inflation to rise further by about 3% year-on-year in January, with the uptick in crude oil and commodity prices and the depreciation in the US dollar-rupee pair pushing up the print, along with an unfavourable base. Beyond high food prices Prices of non-food articles rose 2.46% year-on-year in December, compared with a contraction of 0.98% in the previous month. Prices of primary articles—which include food articles, non-food articles, minerals, and crude petroleum and natural gas—rose 6.02% year-on-year in December, compared to a 5.49% annual rise in the previous month.