WPI inflation accelerates to 1.26% in April from 0.53% a month ago

WPI inflation data for April was released on May 14

India's wholesale price index-based inflation accelerated to 1.26 percent in April on a year-on-year basis as against 0.53 percent a month ago, data from the commerce ministry on May 14 showed.

The month-over-month change in the WPI index in April stood at 0.79 percent compared to March.

"Positive rate of inflation in April 2024 is primarily due to increase in prices of food articles, electricity, crude petroleum and natural gas, manufacture of food products, other manufacturing etc," Ministry of Commerce & Industry said in a statement.

As per the data, inflation in food articles rose to 7.74 per cent in April as against 6.88 per cent in March.

Inflation in vegetables was 23.60 per cent in April, up from 19.52 per cent in the previous month.

In the fuel and power basket, inflation stood at 1.38 per cent in April, up from (-)0.77 per cent in March.

The rise in April WPI is in contrast to the retail inflation data for the month.

The RBI mainly takes into account retail inflation while framing monetary policy.

India's headline retail inflation stayed largely unchanged at 4.83 percent in April, according to data released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation on May 13.

Even though inflation eased to an 11-month low in April, it will be the 55th month in a row that it would be above the RBI's medium-term target of four percent. The central bank is keen to bring it down to the target on a durable basis.

The RBI last month kept interest rate unchanged for seventh time in a row and said that it remains vigilant towards upside risks to food inflation.