Wholesale Price Index inflation falls to 18-month low in September to 10.7 per cent

Business news: The wholesale price-based inflation declined for the fourth consecutive month to 10.7 per cent in September on softening in prices of food, fuel and manufactured items.

The Wholesale Price Index-based inflation was 12.41 per cent in August and 11.80 per cent in September last year. This year, the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) touched a record high of 15.88 per cent in May.

September is the 18th consecutive month of double-digit WPI inflation.

“Inflation in September, 2022 is primarily contributed by rise in prices of mineral oils, food articles, crude petroleum & natural gas, chemicals & chemical products, basic metals, electricity, textiles etc. as compared to the corresponding month of the previous year,” an official statement said.

Inflation in food articles in September eased to 11.03 per cent, against 12.37 per cent in August.

However, inflation in vegetables rose to 39.66 per cent during the month, as against 22.29 per cent in August.

In the fuel and power basket, inflation came in lower at 32.61 per cent in September, against 33.67 per cent in August.

In manufactured products and oil seeds it was 6.34 per cent and (-) 16.55 per cent, respectively.

The RBI mainly looks at retail inflation to frame monetary policy.

Retail inflation remained above the Reserve Bank’s upper tolerance threshold of 6 per cent for the ninth month in a row and was at a 5-month high of 7.41 per cent in September, as per data released earlier this week.

To tame stubbornly high inflation, the RBI has hiked the key interest rate four times this year to 5.90 per cent- the highest since April 2019.

(With agencies inputs)

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