Wholesale Inflation Rises To 14.23% In November, Highest In 16 Years

New Delhi: Wholesale price-based (WPI) inflation surged to 14.23 per cent in November as against 12.54 per cent in October, government data showed on Tuesday. WPI inflation has remained in double digits for eight consecutive months starting April this year. Also, the spike is highest since April 2005.  

"The high rate of inflation is primarily due to rise in prices of mineral oils, basic metals, crude petroleum, natural gas, chemicals products and food," the Commerce and Industry Ministry said in a statement.

Fuel and power prices rose 39.81 per cent versus 37.18 per cent in October, while manufactured product prices rose 11.92 per cent, against 12.04 per cent in the prior month.

Suman Chowdhury, Chief Analytical Officer, Acuité Ratings & Research, said, "The WPI print for November highlights the underlying inflationary pressures in the economy that is not apparent in the headline CPI print. While the wholesale inflation had declined to 10.66 per cent year-on-year in September, it climbed back to 12.54 per cent (YoY) in October and further to 14.23 per cent in November, the highest level seen in the current year."

He added, "There has been a steep sequential rise in inflation of primary articles and fuel and power which stood at 5.6 per cent for both categories which reflects the continuous rise in commodity prices including oil, coal and that of various metals. As seen in headline CPI, there has been a visible spurt in primary food articles due to the rise in vegetable prices; however, we believe this is likely to be transient due to the arrival of the Kharif crop in the market."

In another set of data released on Monday, retail or consumer price-based inflation for November rose to 4.91 per cent on the back of higher vegetable prices.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has kept the full-year target for the current fiscal at 5.3 per cent with inflation peaking in the fourth quarter (Q4) at 5.7 per cent.

The RBI primarily factors in retail inflation while arriving at its monetary policy decisions.