Wholesale inflation: Costly veggies once again play the spoilsport

Wholesale inflation in the country rose for the fourth consecutive month in June at 3.36 per cent on account of rise in prices of food articles, especially vegetables and manufactured items.

The wholesale price index (WPI) based inflation was 2.61 per cent in May. It was (-) 4.18 per cent in June 2023.

"Positive rate of inflation in June, 2024 is primarily due to increase in prices of food articles, manufacture of food products, crude petroleum & natural gas, mineral oils, other manufacturing etc," the ministry of commerce & industry said in a statement on Monday.

As per the data, inflation in food articles rose 10.87 per cent in June, as against 9.82 per cent in May.

Inflation in vegetables was 38.76 per cent during June, up from 32.42 per cent in May.

Onion inflation was at 93.35 per cent, while potato was 66.37 per cent in the month under review.

Pulses inflation rose 21.64 per cent in June.

In the fuel and power basket, inflation stood at 1.03 per cent, marginally lower than 1.35 per cent in May.

In manufactured products, inflation was at 1.43 per cent in June, higher than 0.78 per cent in May.

The rise in June WPI was in line with the retail inflation data for the month.

Retail inflation rose to four months high of 5.1 per cent in June, data released last week showed.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) mainly takes into account retail inflation while framing monetary policy.