WPI inflation eases further to 2.84% in January 2018; manufacturing growth at 2.78%

India's wholesale price index (WPI) inflation further eases to 2.84% in January 2018, lower from 3.58% in December 2017 and 3.93% in November 2017. 
 
This comes as a surprise to markets experts, as many believed that the WPI numbers would be slightly over 3% for the month. 

source: tradingeconomics.com  
A Bloomberg poll of economists had predicted WPI to be at 3.20% in January 2018. 
 
The CSO data showed that index of primary articles came in at 2.37% this month, lower from 2.9% to 131.7 (provisional) of the previous month. 
 
Under primary articles, ‘Food Articles’ group rose to 3% this month. While manufacturing product witnessed growth of 2.78% in January. 
 
Also WPI for fuel, power and lightening prices surged to 4.08% during the month. 
 
The CSO revised WPI for November 2017 to 4.02% compared to previous data of 3.93%.  
 
Sujan Hajra and Pooja Banthia, economists at Anand Rathi, said the divergence between wholesale and retail inflation is again emerging, reflecting higher food and services inflation along with modest manufactured price inflation.
 
In ICRA's view, available trend paints a broadly benign picture for wholesale food prices in the current month. This, in conjunction with the strengthening of the INR, may help to counteract the impact of factors such as rising crude oil prices on the overall WPI inflation for January 2018.
 
"We expect the WPI inflation to print in a range of 3.2% to 3.6% in Q4 FY2018, benefiting from the base effect. Therefore, the wedge between the CPI and the WPI inflation is expected to remain wide in the ongoing quarter," ICRA added.