Food and fuel prices lift India's wholesale inflation rate to 3.18% in April

According to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, last month's rise in WPI inflation rate was slower on a year-on-year (YoY) basis. The rate had increased to 3.85 per cent in April 2017.

New Delhi: An exponential rise in food and fuel prices lifted India's wholesale inflation rate to 3.18 per cent in April from a rise of 2.47 per cent in the previous month, official data showed here on Monday. According to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, last month's rise in WPI inflation rate was slower on a year-on-year (YoY) basis. The rate had increased to 3.85 per cent in April 2017. "The annual rate of inflation, based on monthly WPI, stood at 3.18 per cent (provisional) for the month of April 2018 (over April 2017) as compared to 2.47 per cent (provisional) for the previous month and 3.85 per cent during the corresponding month of the previous year," the ministry said in the review for April 2018. "Build up inflation rate in the financial year so far was 0.69 per cent..." On a sequential basis, the expenses during the month under consideration on primary articles, which constitute 22.62 per cent of the WPI's total weightage, rose by 1.41 per cent, from a marginal rise of 0.24 per cent in March 2018. Among primary articles, food, which has a weightage of 15.26 per cent in the index, edged up last month by 0.87 per cent from a deceleration of (-) 0.29 per cent reported for March. The cost of fuel and power, which commands a 13.15 per cent weightage in the index, increased at a fast pace of 7.85 per cent during the month, from a growth of 4.70 per cent in March. Similarly, expenses on manufactured products in the month under review registered a rise. It increased by 3.11 per cent, from 3.03 per cent in March. On a YoY basis, onion prices in April 2018 soared higher by 13.62 per cent and potatoes by 67.94 per cent. Fuel-wise, prices in April 2018 of both high-speed diesel and petrol climbed higher than in the previous month, by 13.01 per cent and 9.45 per cent.