Wholesale inflation rises for third straight month in May at 2.61%, food items costlier

The wholesale inflation rose for the third consecutive month in May at 2.61% on account of rise in prices of food articles, especially vegetables, and manufactured items.

The wholesale price index (WPI) based inflation was 1.26% in the previous month. It was (-) 3.61% in May 2023.

"Positive rate of inflation in May, 2024 is primarily due to increase in prices of food articles, manufacture of food products, crude petroleum & natural gas, mineral oils, other manufacturing etc," the Ministry of Commerce & Industry said in a statement on Friday.

As per the data, inflation in food articles rose 9.82% in May, as against 7.74 per cent in April.

Inflation in vegetables was 32.42% in May, up from 23.60% in the previous month. Onion inflation was at 58.05 per cent, while potato was 64.05%. Pulses inflation rose 21.95% in May.

In the fuel and power basket, inflation stood at 1.35%, marginally lower than 1.38% in April.

In manufactured products, inflation was at 0.78%, higher than (-) 0.42% in April.

The rise in May WPI is in contrast to the retail inflation data for the month. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) mainly takes into account retail inflation while framing monetary policy.Retail inflation eased to 1 year low of 4.75% in May, data released earlier this week showed.

The RBI earlier this month kept the interest rate unchanged for the eighth time in a row.