India's April wholesale inflation eases to 3.07% (Roundup)

Lower prices of manufactured items and key transportation fuels eased India's annual rate of inflation based on wholesale pri ces to 3.07 per cent in April from 3.18 per cent in March, official data showed on Tuesday.

Similarly, on a year-on-year (YoY) basis, the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) data furnished by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry showed a decelerating trend as inflation had risen to 3.62 per cent during the corresponding period of 2018.

"The annual rate of inflation, based on monthly WPI, stood at 3.07 per cent (provisional) for the month of April 2019 (over April 2018) as compared to 3.18 per cent (provisional) for the previous month and 3.62 per cent during the corresponding month of the previous year," the Ministry said in its review of "Index Numbers of Wholesale Price in India" for April.

"Build up inflation rate in the financial year so far was 0.75 per cent compared to a build-up rate of 0.86 per cent in the corresponding period of th e previous year."

On YoY basis, the expenses on primary articles, which constitute 22.62 per cent of the WPI's total weightage, increased to 6.5 per cent from 2.59 per cent.

The prices of food items increased at a faster rate. The category has a weightage of 15.26 per cent in the WPI index. It increased to 7.37 per cent fr om 0.87 per cent.

While potatoes prices deflated (-) 17.15 per cent, onion prices deflated ( -) 3.43 per cent. However, overall vegetable prices in April rose 40.65 per cent against (-)0.4 per cent in the year-ago month.

The cost of fuel and power, which commands 13.15 per cent weightage, increased to 3.84 per cent against a rise of 7.96 per cent.

Among the non-food items, the price of high-speed diesel rose by 3.24 per cent from 13.5 per cent on a YoY basis, petrol increased by 1.74 per cent from 10.09 per cent.

However, expenses on manufactured products registered a rise of 1.72 per cent against 3.29 per cent. On Monday, data furnished by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), showed that higher food and fuel prices increased India's April retail inflation to 2 .92 per cent from 2.86 per cent in March.

But year-on-year, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) in April was lower than the corresponding period of last year when retail inflation stood at 4.58 per cent.

"April WPI inflation moderated to 3.1 per cent, with sharp uptick in food component being countered by easing in core components," said Madhavi Arora, Economist, FX and Rates, Edelweiss Securities.

"The narrative is mostly similar to the April CPI inflation, with correction in core partly reflecting weaker domestic demand. We see food prices to tick up further in the near-term which could pressurise inflation sequentially."

--IANS

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