India's wholesale inflation rises to 5.13% in September from 4.53%

The wholesale price index (WPI)-based inflation rate surged to 5.13 per cent in September from 4.53 per cent in the previous month, reflecting an increase in the rate of non-food articles’ price rise.

 

Though CPI inflation also rose in September compared to the previous month, the price rise was higher in WPI. CPI inched up to 3.77 per cent in September from 3.69 per cent in August. This may be due to a higher weight of food items — over 45 per cent — in CPI than 15 per cent in WPI.

 

Food prices continued to fall for the third consecutive month in a row even as the rate of decline slowed in September. Food deflation came down to 0.21 per cent in September from 4.04 per cent in August. It stood at 2.10 per cent in July.

 

While food prices may be good news for the middle class — as retail food inflation was also subdued in September — the WPI numbers reflect rural distress.

 

“The divergence in the extent of the uptick displayed by the WPI and the CPI inflation prints for September reflects the underlying difference in the composition of these two indices, with a smaller weight of food items and a larger weight of globally traded commodities in the WPI than the retail basket,” ICRA principal economist Aditi Nayar said.