WPI Inflation Rises to 9.68% in May as Fuel, Food, Manufactured Items See Price Spike

• WPI inflation rose to 9.68% in May from 8.26 per cent in April.

• Fuel and power inflation jumped to 30.33%, while crude petroleum inflation rose to 61.51%.

• Food articles inflation increased to 3.60% and manufactured products inflation rose to 7.48%.

Wholesale price inflation shot up to 9.68 per cent in May, from 8.26% in April, led by a sharp spike in prices of fuel and power, manufactured and food items.

The Commerce and Industry Ministry on Monday released the Wholesale price index (WPI)-based inflation data revising the base year to 2022-23, from 2011-12 earlier.

Wholesale price index (WPI)-based inflation in fuel and power jumped to 30.33% in May as against 24.89% in April. In crude petroleum, inflation was 61.51% in May, as against 56.31% in the previous month.

The sharp rise in WPI inflation reflects the impact of the West Asia crisis and the effective blockade of the Strait of Hormuz through which the majority of the crude oil is imported to India, and its spillover effect on food prices.

Inflation in food articles was 3.60% in May, compared to 2.43% in April. In manufactured products, inflation rose to 7.48% in May, from 6.68% during April, data showed.

Retail or consumer price index based inflation too had surged to a 16-month high of 3.93% in May, as against 3.48% in the previous month.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which mainly factors in CPI when arriving at its monetary policy, has been mandated by the government to ensure that headline inflation remains at 4%, with a 2% margin on either side.

Earlier this month, the RBI raised its inflation projection for the current fiscal year to 5.1% from 4.6%, largely due to mounting input costs, driven by the pass-through of higher global energy prices to retail petrol and diesel prices.

Rising global crude oil prices had led to ₹7.50 a litre increase in petrol and diesel prices in the second half of May.