Wholesale inflation in March eases to 2.05% on food, fuel prices

Wholesale price inflation in March eased to 2.05% against 2.38% in February, data by the government showed on Tuesday.

The wholesale price index (WPI) based inflation, however, rose year-on-year from 0.26% in March 2024. Advertisement The annual rate of inflation based on WPI Food Index decreased from 5.



94% in February to 4.66% in March. Advertisement Positive rate of inflation in March is primarily due to increase in prices of manufacture of food products, other manufacturing, food articles, electricity and manufacture of textiles etc.

Notably, the month over month change in WPI for March stood at (-) 0.19% as compared to February. The index for Primary Articles decreased by 1.

07% to 184.6 (provisional) from 186.6 for February.

Price of crude petroleum & natural gas (-2.42%), non-food articles (-2.40%) and food articles (-0.

72%) decreased in March. Further, the Fuel & Power index decreased by 0.91% to 152.

4 (provisional) in March from 153.8 (provisional) for February. Price of electricity (-2.

31%) and mineral oils (-0.70%) decreased in March. WPI is used to measure the average changes in the prices of goods sold in bulk at the wholesale level, reflecting the supply and demand in industries like manufacturing and construction.

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