India's Wholesale Price Index (WPI) inflation surged to 0.53 percent in March, a notable increase from the 0.20 percent recorded in February, as reported by the Ministry of Commerce & Industry. The uptick in inflation was primarily driven by the escalation in prices of essential commodities including food articles, electricity, crude petroleum & natural gas, machinery & equipment, and other manufacturing sectors.
In the detailed data released, it was observed that WPI inflation had been at 1.34 percent in March 2023, indicating fluctuations in the economic landscape. Notable price increases were seen in categories like crude petroleum and natural gas (1.35 percent), food articles (1 percent), minerals (0.58 percent), non-food articles (0.44 percent), electricity (0.13 percent), and mineral oils (0.13 percent) in March compared to the preceding month. Conversely, the price of coal experienced a decline of 0.15 percent in March.
The analysis pointed out that various sectors witnessed price adjustments on a month-over-month (MoM) basis. Products such as food articles, motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers, rubber and plastics products, and other manufacturing segments saw price hikes. On the other hand, fabricated metal products (except machinery and equipment), basic metals, pharmaceuticals, medicinal chemical & botanical products, and textiles experienced price decreases. The Wholesale Price Index (WPI) is a metric used to gauge price variations of goods traded in bulk by wholesale establishments, differing from the Consumer Price Index (CPI) that monitors consumer purchases by tracking factory gate and retail prices.