WPI inflation rises to six-month high in October to 3.59%

Key Highlights:

• WPI inflation touches six-month high
• WPI so far in FY18 averaged at 2.03%
• Official WPI for ‘All Commodities’ in October, 2017 rose by 1%

India's annual wholesale price index (WPI) inflation came in at 3.59% in the month of October 2017 - higher compared to 2.6% of the September 2017 and 1.27% in the corresponding month of the previous year. 

The official Wholesale Price Index for ‘All Commodities’ (Base: 2011-12=100) for the month of October, 2017 rose by 1% to 115.5 (provisional) from 114.3 (provisional) for the previous month.

source: tradingeconomics.com

Build up inflation rate in the financial year (FY18) so far was 2.03% compared to a build up rate of 3.53% in the corresponding period of the previous year

Index for 'Food Articles' group increased by 2.2% to 148.0 (provisional) from 144.8 (provisional) for the previous month due to higher price of fruits & vegetables (9%), tea (5%), poultry chicken (3%), egg (2%) and condiments & spices, barley and paddy (1% each). 

While index for 'Non-Food Articles' group declined by 0.9% to 119.2 (provisional) from 120.3 (provisional) for the previous month due to lower price of raw cotton (5%), fodder, mesta and cotton seed (3% each), raw rubber, safflower (kardi seed) and castor seed (2% each) and hides (raw), raw jute, gingelly seed, guar seed and groundnut seed (1% each). 

WPI in fuel & power group rose by 3.1% to 93.5 (provisional) from 90.7 (provisional) for the previous month. Index for 'Mineral Oils' group also jumped by 3.9% to 82.2 (provisional) from 79.1 (provisional) for the previous month due to higher price of LPG (9%), naphtha, petroleum coke and ATF (8% each), furnace oil (7%), kerosene (5%) and bitumen, HSD and petrol (2% each).

Manufacturing group surged by 0.3% to 113.7 (provisional) from 113.4 (provisional) for the previous month. 

Further data of Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation (MOSPI) highlighted that  inflation based on WPI Food Index consisting of ‘Food Articles’ from Primary Articles group and ‘Food Product’ from Manufactured Products group increased from 1.99% in September, 2017 to 3.23% in October, 2017.

For the month of August, 2017, the final WPI for ‘All Commodities’ (Base: 2011-12=100) and annual rate of inflation remained unchanged at its provisional level of 114.8 and 3.24% respectively.