Prices: WPI Inflation surged in December 2024
New Delhi: India’s Wholesale Price Index (WPI) rose from 1.89 percent in November to 2.37 percent in December 2024, according to data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry on Tuesday.
It attributed the increase in prices of food items to the rise in manufacturing costs of food products, and the rising costs in the textile industry. In December 2023, WPI inflation stood at 0.86 percent.
The prices of vegetables (28.65 percent), potatoes (93.2 percent), fruits (11.16 percent), milk (2.26 percent), and meat (5.43 percent) shot up but the fuel and power category continued to witness deflation (-3.79 percent) in December.
Inflation in the manufactured sector, which carries the weightage of 64.2 percent in the index, also increased to 2.4 percent in December from 2 percent in November.
India’s retail inflation, based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI), fell to a four-month low of 5.22 percent in December from 5.48 percent in November, driven by easing food inflation.
The retail inflation rate remains over 5 percent, which is a much-anticipated policy rate cut by the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) in the February review.
The RBI, which looks into retail inflation while framing monetary policy, kept the repo rate unchanged at 6.5 percent and kept their stance neutral.
