India’s wholesale price inflation rises to 3.59 per cent  

India's annual rate of inflation based on wholesale prices went up in October to 3.59 per cent, official data showed on Tuesday.

According to data from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the Wholesale Price Index (WPI), with the revised base year of 2011-12, went up in October to 3.59 per cent from 2.60 per cent in September.

"The annual rate of inflation, based on monthly WPI, stood at 3.59 per cent (provisional) for October 2017 (over October 2016) as compared to 2.60 per cent (provisional) for the previous month and 1.27 per cent during the corresponding month the previous year," the ministry said in its review of October WPI.

"Build up inflation rate in the financial year so far was 2.03 per cent compared to a build up rate of 3.53 per cent in the corresponding period of the previous year."

Wholesale prices had accelerated in August to 3.24 per cent from July's rise of 1.88 per cent and an increase of 0.90 per cent was reported for June.

The prices of food articles rose by 4.30 per cent from an acceleration of 2.04 per cent during September 2017 and a rise of 2.98 per cent in October 2016.

In terms of food prices, the YoY (Year-over-year) wholesale inflation rate for onion was higher by 127.04 per cent, whereas for potatoes it plunged by (-)44.29 per cent.

In contrast, the overall vegetable prices in October rose by 36.61 per cent, against a fall of (-)11.84 per cent in the same month a year ago.

As per data, wheat became cheaper by (-)1.99 per cent on YoY basis and the prices of pulses came down by (-)31.05 per cent, but that of paddy became dearer by 3.10 per cent.

Protein-based food items such as eggs, meat and fish became expensive by 5.76 per cent during the month under review.

Prices of other major group under the WPI, manufactured products, which comprise nearly 64.23 per cent of the index, recorded a 2.62 per cent rise.

The sub-category of manufactured food products registered a rise of 1.26 per cent.

Fuel and power prices' inflation accelerated by 10.52 per cent.

Product-wise, the price of high-speed diesel rose by 15.43 per cent during October while that for petrol climbed by 12.87 per cent and for LPG by 26.53 per cent.

This is the second macro-economic inflation data point for October that has shown a surge in prices.

The consumer price index (CPI) inflation for October rose to 3.58 per cent from 3.28 per cent reported for September.

The CPI inflation last month on a YoY basis was lower than 4.20 per cent recorded in October 2016.

The overall food prices, as gauged by the Consumer Food Price Index (CFPI), rose to 1.90 per cent during the month under review from 1.25 per cent in September 2017.