As per the government data released on Monday, WPI inflation has remained in double digits for the 12th consecutive month beginning April 2021
New Delhi, NFAPost: The wholesale price-based inflation rose to a four-month high of 14.55% in March, mainly due to hardening of crude oil and commodity prices, even though vegetables witnessed easing of price pressures.
As per the government data released on Monday, WPI inflation has remained in double digits for the 12th consecutive month beginning April 2021.
The last time such a level of WPI was recorded was in November 2021, when inflation was 14.87%. WPI Inflation in February was at 13.11%, while in March last year, it was 7.89%.
During the month, inflation in food articles eased to 8.06%, from 8.19% in February. Vegetable inflation was 19.88%, against 26.93% in February.
“The high rate of inflation in March, 2022 is primarily due to rise in prices of crude petroleum and natural gas, mineral oils, basic metals, etc owing to disruption in the global supply chain caused by the Russia-Ukraine conflict.” the Commerce and Industry Ministry said in a statement.
Inflation in manufactured items was 10.71% in March, against 9.84% in February. In the fuel and power basket, the rate of price rise was 34.52% during the month.
Inflation in crude petroleum spiked to 83.56% in March, from 55.17% during February.
Retail inflation spiked to 6.95% in March — the third consecutive month that the consumer price index has breached the RBI’s tolerance limit of 6%, data released last week showed.
The Reserve Bank earlier this month kept its key repo rate — at which it lends short-term money to banks — unchanged for the 11th time in a row at 4%, to support growth.
