Image has been used for representational purpose only. , Photo Credit: Sushil Kumar Verma
India’s wholesale price growth slowed to 1.34% in March, with prices of manufactured products down about 0.8% from a year earlier, when overall wholesale inflation stood at 14.5%. Inflation as measured by the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) was pegged at a 25-month low of 3.85% in February 2023.
While the wholesale food index saw a marginal decline from 2.8% in February to 2.3% in March, primary articles inflation eased from 3.3% to 2.4%, while fuel and power inflation eased from 14.8% to 9% in the same period. happened. ,
Read also: Wholesale inflation eases to 4.7% in January
However, breaking the overall trend, inflation in food articles rose to a five-month high of 5.5% in March from 3.8% in February. Inflation in cereals and wheat, despite being at multi-month lows, remained stable at 9.5% and 9.2%, respectively. Paddy prices rose 7.5% in March, the second highest in the last six months.
Vegetable prices continued to decline for the fifth month in a row, but fell from 21.5% in February to 2.2% in March from a year ago. Sequentially, vegetable prices were up 5.5% during the previous month from February levels.
Milk inflation remained at 8.5%, while onion prices fell year-on-year for the 19th consecutive month since September 2021, falling by 36.8% during March. After four months of deflation, LPG prices rose 3.3% in March. The prices of textile products declined for the fourth consecutive month, with the deflation rate increasing from 3.5% in February to 4.9% in March.
“The decline in inflation rate in March, 2023 is mainly due to decline in prices of basic metals, food products, textiles, non-food articles, minerals, rubber and plastic products, crude petroleum and natural gas and paper and paper products . Ministry of Commerce and Industry said in a statement.
The retail inflation rate as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) was fell to a 15-month low of 5.66% in MarchThanks largely to the base effect, as the pace of price growth was recorded at around 7% in the same month last year. The gap between the wholesale and retail inflation rates in the country widened to 432 bps from 259 basis points (bps) in February, which was last seen around October 2020. One basis point is equal to 0.01%.
The statement indicated that the inflation rate for January 2023 was revised slightly upward to 4.8% from 4.73% projected earlier.
On a month-on-month basis, the WPI was unchanged from February’s level, with a 1.3% decline in fuel and electricity and a 0.3% decline in primary articles (1.2%) and food inflation (0.47%), with sequential increases in primary articles (1.2%) and food inflation (0.47%). prices of manufactured products.