Wholesale Price Inflation Rises To 0.58%, Onions Take Food Inflation To 71-Month High

Food Inflation in India has jumped to a 71 year high, increasing the wholesale price inflation (WPI) to 0.58% in November after decelerating for several months as vegetable prices including onions picked up.

Onion prices increased by 119.84 per cent during October and 172.30 per cent in November 2019. As a consequence of the 400 per cent rise in onion prices since March, the inflation in vegetables skyrocketed to 35.99 per cent from 26.10 per cent in October.

The cost of food items rose from 9.80 per cent in October to 11.08 per cent in November. In October, WPI based inflation stood at 0.16 per cent.

Data released by the industry department showed food inflation accelerated to 11.08 per cent in November from 9.8 per cent a month ago as onion prices shot up 172.3 per cent. However, inflation for manufactured items continued to remain negative (-0.84 per cent) for the third consecutive month.

The latest data was released days after India’s retail inflation rose to 5.54 per cent in November.

“Buildup inflation rate in the financial year so far was 2 per cent compared to a buildup rate of 4.56 per cent in the corresponding period of the previous year,” the Ministry said in its review of “Index Numbers of Wholesale Price in India” for November.

“Due to the weak consumption demand the core inflation in November 2019 also remained benign and came in at -1.7 per cent, marking the fourth consecutive month of deflation,” Sunil Kumar Sinha, principal economist, India Ratings said.

India’s economic growth has slowed down to a six and a half year low at 4.5 per cent in the September quarter, on the back of a fall in demand.

Also Read: Retail Inflation Surges To 5.54%; Highest In Three Years