New Delhi: The wholesale price index (WPI) based inflation in May hit an all-time high of 12.94 percent primarily due to low base effect and rise in prices of crude petroleum, mineral oils and manufactured products.
“The annual rate of inflation, based on monthly WPI, was 12.94% (Provisional) for the month of May, 2021 (over May, 2020) as compared to -3.37% in May 2020,” said the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
“The high rate of inflation in May 2021 is primarily due to low base effect and rise in prices of crude petroleum, mineral oils viz. petrol, diesel, naphtha, furnace oil etc. and manufactured products as compared the corresponding month of the previous year,” the ministry added.
Earlier in April, the annual rate of inflation was at the 10.49 percent level.
The manufactured products inflation rose to 10.8 percent in May 2021 as compared to 9 percent in the previous month.
The core inflation increased to 10 percent compared to 8.3 percent in April 2021. CPI-based inflation rose to 6.3% in May against 4.23% in April, as per the Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation.
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The fuel and power inflation, which was 20.94 percent in April, increased to 37.6 percent in May.
The food prices also showed a slight fall and were at 4.31 percent in May 2021 compared to 4.92 percent the previous month. The onion prices on the other hand saw a jump and were at 23.24 percent in May compared to (-) 19.72 percent the previous month.