WPI inflation rises to 2.93 pc in Feb

Inflation based on wholesale prices rose to 2.93 per cent in February over the previous month due to hardening of prices of primary articles, fuel and power, according to government data released Thursday. The Wholesale Price Index (WPI) based inflation stood at 2.76 per cent in January, 2019. WPI inflation stood at 2.74 per cent during February 2018.

Inflation of primary articles, which includes kitchen essentials like potato, onion, fruits, and milk increased to 4.84 per cent during the month, as against 3.54 in January, the data revealed.

The WPI data further revealed that wholesale-based price inflation for 'fuel and power' segment increased to 2.23 per cent in February as against 1.85 per cent in January 2019. The Reserve Bank, which mainly factors in retail inflation based Consumer Price Index (CPI), had cut the key lending rate by 0.25 per cent in February.