India’s wholesale price index (WPI)-based inflation for the month of August softened to 1.31 per cent in comparison to 2.04 per cent in July.
India’s wholesale price index (WPI)-based inflation for the month of August softened to 1.31 per cent on an annual basis in comparison to 2.04 per cent in July, showed the provisional data released by the Ministry of Commerce & Industry on Tuesday. This was primarily due to a reduction in the prices of manufactured products and food items. In June, WPI inflation rose to 3.36 per cent, and it was at 2.61 per cent in May.
Read More:-Govt Launches ‘BHASKAR’ One Stop Digital Platform To Connect Startup Ecosystem
“Positive rate of inflation in August, 2024 is primarily due to increase in prices of food articles, processed food products, other manufacturing, manufacture of textiles and manufacture of machinery & equipment, etc.,” Ministry of Commerce & Industry said in a statement.
The month over month change in WPI for the month of August 2024 stood at -0.45 per cent as compared to July 2024. The rate of inflation based on WPI Food Index decreased from 3.55 per cent in July 2024 to 3.26 per cent in August 2024, the data showed.
Read More: Rate Cut To Be Based On Long-term Inflation Trajectory: RBI Governor
According to the release, inflation for food articles stood at 3.11 per cent in August as compared to 3.45 per cent in July. The inflation rate for the primary articles came in at 2.42 per cent in August from 3.08 per cent in July. The fuel and power inflation was at -0.67 per cent in August as against 1.72 per cent in July. And manufactured products inflation stood at 1.22 per cent in August.
Under the food articles category, vegetable inflation was recorded at -10.01 in August from -8.93 per cent in July. Pulses inflation during the month of August was at 18.57 per cent, while the inflation for wheat came in at 7.28 per cent in August as against 7.00 per cent in July. Cereals inflation was at 8.44 per cent. Eggs, Meat & Fish inflation came in at -0.69 per cent in August. Potato and onion reported inflation at 77.96 per cent and 65.75 per cent respectively.
The non-food articles reported WPI inflation at -2.08 per cent. Minerals inflation was at 8.76 per cent and Crude Petroleum & Natural gas posted wholesale inflation at 1.77 per cent in August and crude petroleum was at -0.98 per cent.
Reacting on the data, Rahul Agrawal, Senior Economist, ICRA Ltd, said, “The core WPI inflation dipped to 0.7 per cent in August 2024 from 1.2 per cent in July 2024, amidst a continued softening in global commodity prices. The WPI-food inflation print eased slightly to a 10-month low of 3.3 per cent in August 2024 from 3.6 per cent in July 2024, amid a sharp sequential decline in the primary food articles index. While prices of most food items have eased further on a month-on-month basis in September 2024, an adverse base would push up the YoY inflation prints for the primary food articles category significantly in the ongoing month (+11.4%/+3.8% in August 2023/September 2023). This would exert upward pressure to the headline WPI inflation print for September 2024.”
ICRA expects the WPI inflation to rise to ~2.0 per cent in September 2024 from 1.3 per cent in August 2024.
