Food prices rose 1.14% over April levels. Image used for representative purpose only.
| Photo Credit: K. Murali Kumar
Inflation in India’s wholesale prices accelerated to a 15-month high of 2.61% in May from 1.26% in April, thanks to an 7%-plus uptick in primary articles and food prices from about 5% in April, and a resurgence of price rise in manufactured products after several months of deflation.
May was the seventh month in a row that the WPI rose on a year-on-year basis, after seven consecutive months of decline.
On a month-on-month basis, the Wholesale Price Index was up 0.2% in May, easing from a ten-month high of 0.8% a month earlier, with food prices rising 1.14% over April levels and manufactured products’ prices up 0.64%.
“Positive rate of inflation in May is primarily due to increase in prices of food articles, manufacture of food products, crude petroleum & natural gas, mineral oils, other manufacturing, etc,” the Commerce and Industry Ministry said.
As per the data, inflation in vegetables was 32.42% in May, up from 23.60% in the previous month. Onion inflation was at 58.05%, while potato was 64.05%. Pulses inflation rose 21.95% in May.
In the fuel and power basket, inflation stood at 1.35%, marginally lower than 1.38% in April.
In manufactured products, inflation was at 0.78%, higher than (-) 0.42% in April.
(With PTI inputs)
