The Ministry of Commerce and Industry on 14th March released its new data regarding the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) for the previous month. And as per the data, due to hardening of prices of primary good (Kitchen essentials), fuel and and power the WPI surged to 2.93% in February compared to 2.74% in the corresponding month of the previous fiscal.
Also, a similar surge was witnessed in WPI if compared to 2.76% inflation rate of the January month of the current fiscal.
The data revealed that inflation pertaining to primary articles, which includes kitchen essentials like vegetables, fruits and milk increased to 4.84% during the month, compared to 3.54% in January.
The rate of inflation based on WPI Food Index consisting of ‘Food Articles’ from Primary Articles group and ‘Food Product’ from Manufactured Products group increased from 1.84% in January, 2019 to 3.29% in Feb.
While the WPI based on ‘fuel and power’ segment increased from 1.85% in January to 2.23% in February. The increase in WPI is due to the hardening or increase in the wholesale price of the primary articles, fuel and power. The base year for all the comparisons was FY 2011-12.