Navi Mumbai: A view of the wholesale vegetables market at Vashi
Credit: PTI File Photo
New Delhi: The annual wholesale price inflation rose marginally to 2.38% in February from 2.31% recorded in the previous month, driven by sharper increase in prices of manufactured food items, official data showed on Monday.
Inflation in manufactured products, which accounts for nearly two-thirds of the Wholesale Price Index (WPI), accelerated to 2.86% in February from 2.51% recorded in the previous month.
However, food inflation declined from 7.47% in January to 5.94% in February, as per data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. There was a broad-based cooling across most primary food articles, including a sharp correction in vegetable prices.
“The downward pressure on the headline print on account of the dip in food inflation was offset by the narrowing deflation in the fuel and power segment, and an uptick in the core (non-food manufacturing) WPI inflation to a 24-month high of 1.3%,” said Rahul Agrawal, Senior Economist, ICRA.
Out of the 22 NIC (National Industrial Classification) two-digit groups for manufactured products, 17 groups witnessed an increase in prices, two groups witnessed a decrease in prices and three groups witnessed no change in prices.
Some of the important groups that showed month-over-month increase in prices were other manufacturing, manufacture of food products, basic metals, other non-metallic mineral products and chemicals and chemical products, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry noted in a statement.
Some of the groups that witnessed a decrease in prices were manufacture of wood and of products of wood and cork and leather and related products in February as compared to the previous month.