India's Wholesale Inflation Falls To 13-Month Low In April

India's wholesale price inflation eased to the lowest in over a year at 0.85% in April, compared to 2.05% in March, data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry showed on Wednesday.

Commodities across the board saw a fall in wholesale prices. While wholesale inflation in primary articles—especially food—led the decline, prices of manufactured products too fell, along with a fall in fuel and power.

• Inflation in manufactured products—the largest component of the index—rose by 2.62% versus 3.07%.

• Primary articles inflation at -1.44% versus 0.76%.

• Inflation in food articles—a sub-component of primary articles— fell -0.86% versus 1.57%.

• Fuel and power inflation at -1.28% versus 0.2%.

• Vegetables: -18.26% in April versus -15.88% in March vs -5.80%.

ICRA expects the WPI-food inflation to soften further in May 2025, aided by the favourable base as well as relatively favourable trends in wholesale prices of essential food items in the ongoing month so far.

Softening in commodity and crude oil prices, is also expected to augur well for the WPI print for May 2025, the agency said.

"Looking ahead, the IMD’s expectation of an early monsoon onset in Kerala and an above normal monsoon in the country is a positive for crop output, and consequently, the food inflation outlook, although the spatial and temporal distribution of the same remains key," said Rahul Agrawal, senior economist, ICRA Ltd.