Wholesale inflation rises to 0.58% in Nov

New Delhi: Wholesale inflation rose to 0.58 per cent in November mainly on account of rising prices of food articles, with onion alone spurting by over 172 per cent during the month vis-a-vis a year ago, government data showed on Monday.

The annual rate of inflation, based on monthly wholesale price index (WPI) was at 0.16 per cent in October.

The inflation was at 4.47 per cent in the same month a year ago (November 2018).

Build up inflation rate in the financial year so far was 2 per cent compared to a build up rate of 4.56 per cent in the corresponding period of the previous year, as per the data released by the Office of Economic Adviser, Ministry of Commerce & Industry.

Inflation in food articles as a group rose to 11.08 per cent during the month as against 9.80 per cent in the previous month, mainly driven by exorbitantly high onion prices, the rates of which spiked by over 172 per cent from a year-ago, the data showed.

Onion prices ruled between Rs 150-200 per kg in some markets in country till recently because of crop damage due to excessive rains. However, prices have started to move southwards at around Rs 100 per kg currently and are expected to come down further as fresh crop and imports are likely to hit the market soon.

Vegetables and pulses too got costly with inflation rates hovering at 45.32 per cent and 16.59 per cent respectively.

In non-food articles, the wholesale inflation in November stood at 1.98 per cent, lower than 2.35 per cent in October.

For manufactured products, the wholesale inflation remained static at (-) 0.84 per cent during the month under review. Fuel and power, as a category, too continued to show deflationary trend at (-)7.32 per cent as against (-)8.27 per cent.

The rate of price rise in primary articles as a grouping rose to 7.68 per cent from 6.41 per cent a month earlier.