India’s wholesale price inflation up at 2.61% in May
17 Jun 2024
The annual rate of inflation based on the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) stood at 2.61 per cent in May 2024, as per provisional estimates released on Friday. The increase in inflation rate is attributed mainly to higher prices of food articles, crude petroleum and natural gas, mineral oils and other manufactured items.
WPI for May 2024 increased by 0.20 per cent compared to the previous month (April 2024).
Inflation rate for the `Primary Articles’ group, which has a weight of 22.62 per cent in the index, increased by 0.54 per cent in May 2024 as prices of food articles (1.48 per cent) and minerals (1.08 per cent) increased in May 2024. Prices of non-food articles (-1.26 per cent) and crude petroleum and natural gas (-3.56 per cent) declined during the month.
Inflation rate for the `Fuel and Power’ group (weight of 13.15 per cent in WPI) declined by 2.71 per cent as prices of mineral oils and coal remained unchanged in May 2024. Prices of electricity (-11.67 per cent) declined during the month.
Inflation rate for the Manufactured Products’ group (weight of 64.23 per cent in WPI) increased by 0.64 per cent as prices of 13 out of the 22 manufactured product groups increase in prices. Prices of eight groups declined while price of 1 group remained constant.
Prices of basic metals, food products, computer, electronic and optical products, electrical equipment, other manufactured items, etc increased during May 2024 while prices of fabricated metal products (except machinery and equipment), other non-metallic mineral products, chemicals and chemical products, tobacco products, other transport equipment etc showed a decline during the month.
Food price inflation based on the WPI Food Index (weight of 24.38 per cent) consisting of 'food articles' from primary articles group and 'food product' from manufactured products group increased to 7.40 per cent in May 2024 from 5.52 per cent in April.
The final inflation rate for March 2024, based on the revised WPI for the month stood at 0.26 per cent.