India’s wholesale price inflation zooms to 13.11% in February
17 Mar 2022
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The annual rate of inflation based on the wholesale price index soared to 13.11 per cent of February 2022 compared to 4.83 per cent in February 2021, as per provisional figures for the month.
The high spike in the rate of inflation in February 2022 has been due primarily to rise in prices of mineral oils, basic metals, chemicals and chemical products, crude petroleum and natural gas, food articles and non-food articles etc as compared to the corresponding month of the previous year.
Inflation rate for the `Primary Articles’ group, which has a weight of 22.62 per cent in the wholesale price index, increased by 1.09 oer cent in February 2022 as prices of crude petroleum and natural gas, non-food articles and minerals increased in February 2022 as compared to January 2022. Under the Primary Articles roup, prices of food articles declined by 0.87 per cent in February 2022 as compared to January 2022.
Inflation rate for the `Fuel & Power’ group, which has a weight of 13.15 per cent in the WPI, increased by 4.35 per cent in February 2022, as per provisional estimates. Prices of mineral oils increased by 7.22 per cent in February 2022 compared to January 2022. Prices of coal and electricity remained unchanged.
Inflation rate for the manufactured products group, which has a weight of 64.23 per cent in the WPI, increased by 0.95 per cent year-on-year in February 2022.
Out of the 22 groups of manufactured products, 18 groups have witnessed increase in prices while 3 groups witnessed decrease in prices in February 2022. The increase in prices has mainly been contributed by basic metals, textiles, paper and paper products and chemical and chemical products. Some of the groups that have witnessed decrease in prices are manufacture of fabricated metal products (except machinery and equipment), printing and reproduction of recorded media and tobacco products. The prices of rubber and plastics products remained unchanged in February 2022 as compared to January 2022.
Inflation rate for the for the food articles group (Food Index), consisting of 'Food Articles' from the Primary Articles group and 'Food Products' from the Manufactured Products group, with a weight of 24.38 per cent, increased in February 2022. The rate of inflation based on WPI Food Index decreased from 9.55 per cent in January 2022 to 8.47 per cent in February 2022.
Final wholesale price inflation rate, based on the final wholesale price inflation rate for 'All Commodities' (Base: 2011-12=100) stood at 14.27 per cent.
