Wholesale Price Index inflation rises to 11.39% in August: Centre

WPI inflation rose in August and remained in double-digit for the fifth consecutive month. (Representative image: REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui)

The wholesale price-based inflation rose to 11.39 percent in August in India, said the Ministry of Commerce and Industry on September 14.

The Wholesale Price Index (WPI) inflation was 0.41 percent in August 2020, the ministry said in a press release.

Snapping the two-month easing trend, WPI inflation rose in August and remained in double-digit for the fifth consecutive month. In July 2021, WPI inflation stood at 11.16 percent.

The high rate of inflation in August 2021 is primarily due to the rise in prices of non-food articles, mineral oils; crude petroleum and natural gas; manufactured products like basic metals; food products; textiles; chemicals and chemical products, etc as compared to the corresponding month of the previous year, the release stated.

Inflation in food articles eased for the fourth straight month, recording (-) 1.29 percent in August, from zero percent in July, even as onion and pulses prices spiked. Inflation in onions was high at 62.78 percent, while that in pulses was 9.41 percent. In vegetables, it was (-) 13.30 percent in August. Inflation in crude petroleum and natural gas was 40.03 percent in August.

In manufactured products, inflation stood at 11.39 percent in August, against 11.20 percent in July.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which mainly takes into account retail inflation, in its monetary policy in August kept interest rates unchanged at record lows. It projected CPI or retail inflation at 5.7 percent during 2021-22, up from its earlier projection of 5.1 percent.

(With inputs from PTI)