Wholesale price inflation climbs to 13.11% in February

Inflation in wholesale prices stayed above the 10% mark for the eleventh month in a row in February, climbing marginally from 12.96% in January to 13.11%. The Wholesale Price Index for December 2021 has been revised upwards to 14.27% from an earlier estimate of 13.56%.

Wholesale inflation was 4.83% in February 2021. Fuel and power inflation touched 31.5% this February, marginally lower than January’s 32.3%, while manufactured products inflation picked up from 9.42% to 9.84%, signalling that producers have begun passing part of their rising input costs to consumers.

Primary articles continued to record elevated inflation at 13.39%, while the Food Index moderated from a 24-month high of 9.55% in January to 8.47% in February.

The sequential trend was a little different, with fuel and power inflation rising the most. The WPI index grew 1.4% on a month-on-month basis in February, with fuel and power inflation seeing the highest rise of 4.35%. Manufactured products grew 0.95%, while food and primary articles climbed 0.06% and 1.09%, respectively.

“The high rate of inflation in February 2022 is primarily due to rise in prices of mineral oils, basic metals, chemicals and chemical products, crude petroleum & natural gas, food articles and non-food articles, etc. as compared to the corresponding month of the previous year,” an official statement from the Office of the Economic Adviser, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry said.

The National Statistical Office is scheduled to release the Consumer Price Index that measures retail inflation in the evening.