India’s wholesale price inflation jumps to 13.56% in December
17 Jan 2022
1
The annual rate of inflation based on the wholesale price index (WPI) for December 2021 stood at 13.56 per cent as per provisional figures released by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade on Friday showed.
Against this, wholesale price inflation rate in December 2020 stood at 1.95 per cent.
The spike in the rate of inflation in December 2021 is primarily due to rise in prices of mineral oils, basic metals, crude petroleum and natural gas, chemicals and chemical products, food products, textile and paper and paper products etc, says the official release.
The month over month change in WPI for the month of December 2021 stood at (-) 0.35 per cent compared to November 2021.
Inflation rate for the `primary articles’ group, which has a weight of 22.62 per cent in the WPI, declined by (-) 0.47 in December 2021 compared to the previous month, due mainly to increase in the prices of non-food articles (4.59 per cent). Prices of minerals (-6.10 per cent), crude petroleum and natural gas (-3.19 per cent) and food articles (-1.07 per cent) declined in December 2021 compared to November 2021.
Inflation rate for the `fuel and power’ group (weight of 13.15 per cent in WPI) declined by 2.66 per cent in December 2021. Prices of coal (0.38 per cent) increased in December 2021 compared to November 2021 while prices of mineral oils (-4.28 per cent) declined in December 2021 compared to November 2021. Prices of electricity remain unchanged.
Inflation rate for the manufactured products group (weight of 64.23 per cent) increased by 0.22 per cent in December 2021 compared to November 2021. Out of the 22 groups for manufactured products, 16 groups have witnessed increase in prices while 5 groups have witnessed decrease in prices in December 2021 compared to November 2021. The increase in prices was mainly due to higher prices of textiles, chemicals and chemical products, fabricated metal products (except machinery and equipment), electrical equipment and motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers.
Some of the groups that have witnessed decrease in prices are basic metals, food products, computer, electronic and optical products, wearing apparel and beverages. The prices of rubber and plastics products remained unchanged in December 2021 compared to November 2021.
Food price inflation based on the food index (weight of 24.38 per cent), consisting of 'food articles' from the primary articles group and 'food products' from the manufactured products group increased from 6.70 per cent in November to 9.24 per cent in December 2021.
The final inflation rate for October 2021 (Base Year: 2011-12=100) based on the revised wholesale price index for 'all commodities' (Base: 2011-12=100) stood at 13.83 per cent.
