India's wholesale price inflation (WPI) accelerated sharply in March, rising to a 38-month high of 3.88%. This was largely driven by a broad-based increase in primary articles, manufactured products and fuel costs, government data showed on Wednesday.
This compares to a February WPI inflation of 2.13%, meaning the March numbers are the highest seen in India since January 2023, indicating an overall pricing pressure in the market across key components of the wholesale basket.
Inflation in primary articles surged to 6.36% in March from 3.27% a month earlier, reflecting higher prices of food articles, minerals and crude petroleum. WPI food inflation, though, remained unchanged on a month-on-month basis at 1.85%.
Meanwhile, fuel and power inflation turned positive at 1.05% in March, reversing a contraction of 3.78% in February. The increase was attributed to rising prices of electricity, coal and mineral oils,according to official data.
Manufactured products inflation, which is the largest component of the WPI basket, edged up to 3.39% from 2.92% in February, signaling cost pressures across sectors such as chemicals, basic metals, food products and textiles.
This comes on the back of India's Consumer Price Index (CPI)-based inflation or retail inflation data, which saw a 3.4% year-on-year uptick in the month of March 2026. This was broadly in line with analyst estimates, with inflation standing at 3.21% in the preceding month.
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