Wholesale Price Inflation: Wholesale price inflation at 0.3% in November after 7 months of deflation

NEW DELHI: Wholesale price inflation rose in November after remaining in the negative zone for the past seven months, largely due to a surge in some food and vegetable prices.
Data released by the ministry of commerce and industry on Thursday showed inflation, as measured by the wholesale priceindex (WPI), rose an annual 0.3% in November, above the 0.5% contraction in October.Positive rate of inflation in November was primarily due to increase in prices of food articles, minerals, machinery & equipment, computer, electronics & optical products, motor vehicles, other transport equipment and other manufacturing, according to the ministry.

The food articles group rose 8.2% in November, faster than the 1.5% in the same year earlier month. Vegetable prices rose 10.4% during the month after contracting 20.1% in November last year. Onion inflation was up 101.2% during the month after declining 19.3% in November last year.
Latest data showed that retail inflation, as measured by the consumer price index (CPI), rose 5.6% in November, higher than the 4.9% in October but marginally lower than the 5.9% recorded in November 2022. “We expect the uptrend in domestic food prices as well as an unfavourable base to push up the year-on-year WPI inflation to 1.5-1.7% in December,” said rating agency ICRA.