WPI inflation in negative for second month at (-) 0.32% in November

New Delhi: Wholesale price inflation stayed in the negative for the second consecutive month in November at (-) 0.32 per cent, even though there was an uptick in prices of food articles like pulses and vegetables on a month-on-month basis, government data showed on Monday.

Wholesale Price Index (WPI)-based inflation was at (-) 1.21 per cent in October and 2.16 per cent in November last year.

However, on an annual basis, the negative rate of inflation during November was primarily due to decrease in prices of food articles, mineral oils, crude petroleum & natural gas, manufacture of basic metals and electricity, the industry ministry said in a statement.

Food articles continued to witness deflation for the past eight months, beginning in April. It narrowed sharply in November at 4.16 per cent, from 8.31 per cent in October.

In vegetables, deflation was 20.23 per cent in November, as against 34.97 per cent in October.

In pulses, deflation was at 15.21 per cent in November, while in potato and onion it was 36.14 per cent and 64.70 per cent, respectively.

In the case of manufactured products, inflation eased to 1.33 per cent in November, as against 1.54 per cent in October.

Fuel and power witnessed a negative inflation or deflation of 2.27 per cent, as against 2.55 per cent in October.

ICRA Chief Economist Aditi Nayar said the WPI deflation narrowed faster than expected to 0.3 per cent in November 2025, from 1.2 per cent in October 2025, reflecting the base effect, weakening INR and rising prices of some commodities.

"With the further depreciation in the INR, hardening commodity prices, and unseasonal rise in vegetable prices, and despite softening crude oil, we expect the WPI to move into a year-on-year inflation of around 0.5 per cent in December 2025," Nayar said.

Data released last week showed CPI inched up to 0.71 per cent in November, from a record low of 0.25 per cent, driven by rising food prices.

Low inflation in the current fiscal year has given the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) room to cut policy interest rates by 1.25 percentage points.

The Reserve Bank, earlier this month, significantly lowered the inflation projection for the current fiscal to 2 per cent from 2.6 per cent estimated earlier, as the economy continues to witness rapid disinflation.

The RBI mainly tracks retail inflation for deciding on benchmark interest rates.

Earlier this month, the RBI had cut key policy interest rates by 25 bps to 5.25 per cent, saying that the Indian economy is in a "rare Goldilocks period" marked by high growth and low inflation.

The Reserve Bank last week raised the FY26 GDP growth projection to 7.3 per cent, from its earlier estimate of 6.8 per cent. India recorded an 8.2 per cent growth in the September quarter, and 7.8 per cent in the June quarter.