Inflation rate rises again, hits double digits for the 13th consecutive month
India’s wholesale price index (WPI)-based inflation rate rose to 15.08 per cent in April 2022, showed data released by the industry department of the Union ministry of commerce and industry on Tuesday, and with it, the rate hit double digits for the 13th consecutive month. The WPI a year back, that is, in April 2021 stood at 10.74 per cent.
This highest level of the inflation rate in the current 2011-12 series was reached on the back of hardening commodity and vegetable prices.
It grew to 14.55 per cent in March, while the WPI for February was revised to 13.11 per cent from 13.43 per cent, the data showed.
The industry department data also showed vegetable inflation picked up in April to 23.24 per cent, leading to food inflation of 8.35 per cent, even as the rise in wheat price softened. Fuel inflation climbed to 38.66 per cent.
At 15.05 per cent in April, edible oil inflation remained in double digits for the 29th consecutive month (though down marginally from March), while inflation for manufactured products increased to 10.85 per cent.
Core inflation, which excludes food and fuel inflation, rose marginally to a four-month high of 11.1 per cent.
According to Sunil Kumar Sinha, principal economist at India Ratings and Research, manufacturers are increasingly passing on surging input costs to customers. He reminded that this trend started well before the Russia-Ukraine conflict; however, he also said that the rising inflation has been aggravated by the conflict, due to a further spike in input costs, especially of crude oil and raw materials.
The chief economist at ICRA, Aditi Nayar predicted the WPI-based inflation rate will remain quite high in May as well, though it may see a recession to a value slightly below 15 per cent.
