WPI inflation eases to 2.31% in Jan on decline in food prices

New Delhi: Wholesale price inflation moderated marginally to 2.31 per cent in January due to the decline in prices of food items especially vegetables, government data released on Friday showed.

The Wholesale Price Index (WPI) based inflation was 2.37 per cent in December 2024. It was 0.33 per cent in January 2024.

As per the data, inflation in food items eased to 5.88 per cent in January, as against 8.47 per cent in December 2024.

Inflation in vegetables came down significantly to 8.35 per cent, as against 28.65 per cent in December 2024.

In the eggs, meat and fish category inflation declined to 3.56 per cent as against 5.43 per cent last month.

Within vegetables, tomato prices declined to 18.9 per cent while inflation in potato continued to be high at 74.28 per cent, and in onion it spiked to 28.33 per cent in January.

The fuel and power category witnessed a deflation of 2.78 per cent in January, against a deflation of 3.79 per cent in December.

In manufactured items, inflation was 2.51 per cent as compared to 2.14 per cent in December 2024.

Retail inflation data released on Wednesday showed that Consumer Price Index (CPI) based inflation eased to a 5-month low of 4.31 per cent in January on easing prices of food items.

ICRA Senior Economist Rahul Agrawal said, “We project the WPI to average at 2.4 per cent in FY2025 and inch up further to 3 per cent in FY2026, despite expectations of a cooling in the prints for the

food segment”.