WPI surges to 5.25% in January

India’s wholesale price inflation (WPI), surged to its highest level since July 2014 in the month of January, on the back of faster increase in cost of manufactured product and a surge in cost of petrol even as food and vegetable prices contracted during the month. As per the data of Ministry of Commerce & Industry, the annual rate of inflation, based on monthly WPI, stood at 5.25% for the month of January, 2017, as compared to 3.39% (provisional) for the previous month and (-) 1.07% during the corresponding month of the previous year.  Build up inflation rate in the financial year so far was 5.31% compared to a build up rate of (-) 0.40% in the corresponding period of the previous year. Meanwhile, for the month of November 2016, the final WPI index was revised upward to 3.38 percent from 3.15 percent (provisional).

Component wise, primary articles index, having weight of 20.12%, witnessed a marginal drop of 0.2% to 255.7 (provisional) from 256.3 (provisional) for the previous month. Among the primary articles, the index for 'Non-Food Articles' group jumped 2.5 percent to 231.3 (provisional) from 225.6 (provisional) for the previous month and the index for Minerals’ group was up by 1.0 percent to 215.5 (provisional) from 213.3 (provisional) for the previous month, while the index for 'Food Articles' group declined by 1.1 percent to 267.2 (provisional) from 270.1 (provisional) for the previous month.

Fuel & Power index having weight of 14.91% rose by 4.7% to 201.2 (provisional) from 192.1 (provisional) for the previous month due to higher price of coking coal.

Manufactured Products index having weight of 64.97% increased by 0.5% to 158.8 (provisional) from 158.0 (provisional) for the previous month. Among the items in the group, the index for 'Basic Metals, Alloys & Metal Products' group surged 2.3 percent to 161.2 (provisional) from 157.6 (provisional) for the previous, the index for 'Food Products' group rose by 0.4 percent to 194.5 (provisional) from 193.7 (provisional) for the previous month, the index for ' Textiles ' group rose by 0.5 percent to 142.3 (provisional) from 141.6 (provisional) for the previous month, the index for 'Paper & Paper Products' group rose by 0.4 percent to 157.7 (provisional) from 157.0 (provisional) for the previous month, The index for 'Rubber & Plastic Products' group rose by 0.1 percent to 148.6 (provisional) from 148.4 (provisional) for the previous month and the index for 'Chemicals & Chemical Products' group was up by 0.1 percent to 150.9 (provisional) from 150.7 (provisional) for the previous month.

On the other hand, the index for 'Wood & Wood Products' group dropped 0.6 percent to 192.6 (provisional) from 193.7 (provisional) for the previous month, the index for 'Leather & Leather Products' group declined by 0.4 percent to 145.5 (provisional) from 146.1 (provisional) for the previous month, the index for 'Non-Metallic Mineral Products' group declined by 0.4 percent to 178.6 (provisional) from 179.3 (provisional) for the previous month, the index for 'Machinery & Machine Tools' group declined by 0.1 percent to 135.4 (provisional) from 135.5 (provisional) for the previous month and the index for 'Transport, Equipment & Parts' group was down by 0.1 percent to 139.8 (provisional) from 140.0 (provisional) for the previous month.