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Wholesale Inflation Rises to 1.84% in September 2024 On Costlier Food Items – News18

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Wholesale Inflation Rises to 1.84% in September 2024 On Costlier Food Items – News18


Wholesale inflation in potato and onion continued to be high at 78.13 per cent and 78.82 per cent, respectively, in September.

Inflation in food items shot up to 11.53 per cent last month against 3.11 per cent in August. This was led by 48.73 per cent inflation in vegetables as against (-)10.01 per cent in August.

India’s wholesale inflation rose to 1.84 per cent in September 2024 mainly due to increase in prices of food articles and manufacturing equipment, compared with a four-month low of 1.31 per cent in the previous month of August 2024.

“The annual rate of inflation based on all India Wholesale Price Index (WPI) number is 1.84 per cent (Provisional) for the month of September, 2024 (over September, 2023). Positive rate of inflation in September, 2024 is primarily due to increase in prices of food articles, food products, other manufacturing, manufacture of motor vehicles, trailers & semi-trailers, manufacture of machinery & equipment, etc,” the commerce and industry ministry said in a statement on Monday.

Inflation in food items shot up to 11.53 per cent last month against 3.11 per cent in August. This was led by 48.73 per cent inflation in vegetables as against (-)10.01 per cent in August.

Potato and onion continued to witness price hikes at 78.13 per cent and 78.82 per cent, respectively, in September. The ‘fuel and power’ category witnessed deflation of 4.05 per cent in September against a deflation of 0.67 per cent in August.

The Wholesale Price Index (WPI)-based inflation had witnessed a slight contraction of 0.1 per cent in September 2023.

In the previous financial year 2023-24, the WPI inflation remained negative (or in deflatory phase) in seven out of 12 months. The average wholesale inflation was -0.7 per cent during the year.

The CPI inflation numbers will be released later in the day at around 5:30 pm.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which mainly takes into account retail inflation while framing monetary policy, kept benchmark interest rate or repo rate unchanged at 6.5 per cent in its monetary policy review earlier this month.

Aditi Nayar, chief economist and head of research and outreach of ICRA Ltd, said, “The WPI inflation rose mildly to 1.8 per cent in September 2024 from 1.3 per cent in August 2024, while printing in line with our expectations (+1.9%). The uptick was entirely led by an adverse base-led surge in the primary food articles inflation print to a 14-month high of 11.5 per cent in September 2024 from 3.1% in the previous month. This exerted upward pressure to the tune of 156 bps to the headline WPI print between these months, which was partly offset by dips in most other categories including fuel and power, crude petroleum and natural gas, and non-food manufactured items.”

The core (non-food manufacturing) WPI continued to display a sequential softening for the fourth consecutive month in September 2024, contracting by 0.1 per cent relative to August 2024. Likewise, the YoY print in the core WPI eased for the second straight month to 0.1 per cent from 0.7 per cent in the previous month, she added.

“Following the escalation of tensions in West Asia, crude oil and global commodity prices have witnessed a sequential increase in early-October 2024, which is likely to exert some pressure on the WPI print for the month. Additionally, the WPI-food inflation print is also likely to remain elevated above the 8.0% mark in October 2024 for the second consecutive month, led by a double-digit print in the primary food articles segment. Consequently, ICRA estimates the WPI inflation to inch up to ~2.0-2.5% in October 2024,” Nayar said.

The near-term outlook for the WPI inflation remains susceptible to movements in global commodity prices. Any further flare up in geopolitical tensions, leading to an increase in commodity prices, could result in a faster-than-anticipated rise in the WPI inflation during H2 FY2025, Nayar added.



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