Reportedly the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) based inflation in november eased to a three month low of 1.89 per cent in november 2024, as against 2.36 per cent in october, according to the official data released on Monday. The fall in WPI inflation comes as prices of food items, especially vegetables, turned cheaper in November. The wholesale inflation had stood at 0.39 per cent in november last year. “The annual rate of inflation based on all india Wholesale Price Index (WPI) number is 1.89% (Provisional) for the month of november 2024 (over november 2023)," the Ministry of Commerce & industry said in a statement.
Perhaps as per the data, inflation in food items eased to 8.63 per cent in november, as against 13.54 per cent in October. The decline was led by a dip in vegetable inflation which stood at 28.57 per cent, as against 63.04 per cent in October. Inflation in potato, however, continued to be high at 82.79 per cent, while in onion it fell sharply to 2.85 per cent in November.
Moreover the core (non-food manufacturing) WPI inflation inched up to 0.5% in november 2024 from 0.3% in october 2024, while remaining below 1.0% for the fourth consecutive month. The core inflation prints have largely remained subdued, averaging at just 0.4% during April-November 2024, which along with the benign prints in primary non-food articles and crude petroleum and natural gas, has contained the uptick in the headline WPI inflation during this period, despite elevated food inflation.