WPI inflation rises to 3.18% in April on costlier fuel, fruits

Inflation in food articles was at 0.87 per cent in April 2018, as against a deflation of 0.29 per cent in the preceding month.

Inflation based on wholesale prices shot up to 3.18 per cent in April on increasing prices of petrol and diesel as well as fruits and vegetables.

The Wholesale Price Index (WPI) based inflation stood at 2.47 per cent in March and 3.85 per cent in April last year.

According to government data released on Monday, inflation in food articles was at 0.87 per cent in April 2018, as against a deflation of 0.29 per cent in the preceding month.

Deflation in vegetables was 0.89 per cent in April, while in the previous month it was 2.70 per cent.

Inflation in 'fuel and power' basket rose sharply to 7.85 per cent in April from 4.70 per cent in March as prices of domestic fuel increased in line with rising global crude oil rates.

Inflation in fruits was in double digits at 19.47 per cent in April, up from 9.26 per cent in the previous month.

The WPI inflation for February was revised upwards to 2.74 per cent from the provisional estimate of 2.48 per cent.

In its first monetary policy review for the fiscal, the Reserve Bank last month maintained status-quo on interest rate citing inflationary concerns.

Data on retail inflation is scheduled to be released later in the day. RBI mainly takes into account retail inflation data while formulating monetary policy.

The central bank revised downward forecast for retail inflation to 4.7-5.1 per cent for April-September and 4.4 per cent for October-March.

Photograph: Reuters