India’s wholesale inflation cools to 4.73% in January

Fuel and power inflation in January was 15.15%, down from 18.09% in December, while inflation on manufactured products rose 2.99% from 3.37% last month.

Workers sit on a cart at a wholesale market in the old quarters of Delhi on 7 December, 2022 | Reuters

New Delhi: India’s annual wholesale price-based inflation (WPI) eased in January to 4.73 per cent year-on-year, on cooling prices of some raw materials, government data showed on Tuesday.

The reading was below the 4.95 per cent rate recorded in the previous month but was higher than the Reuters poll forecast of 4.54 per cent.

Fuel and power inflation in January was 15.15 per cent, down from 18.09 per cent in December, while inflation on manufactured products rose 2.99 per cent from 3.37 per cent last month.

However, prices of food rose at a faster pace in January to 2.95 per cent from 0.65 per cent in the previous month.

Due to high food prices January’s retail inflation print rose above the central bank’s upper threshold for the first time in three months.

“WPI inflation is broadly in line with expectations. “Nevertheless, increase in food inflation is in line with CPI (retail inflation). We do expect WPI will fall further below 3 per cent by March,” Aditi Nayar, economist at ICRA. – Reuters

(Reporting by Aftab Ahmed and Nikunj Ohri; Editing by Himani Sarkar & Shri Navaratnam)

Disclaimer: This report is auto generated from the Reuters news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.