India’s Feb wholesale inflation eases to lowest in over 2 years
3:16 am Tuesday, March 14th, 2023
NEW DELHI (Reuters) -India’s annual wholesale price-based inflation (WPI) eased to the lowest in over two years, dragged down by a fall in overall input costs for manufacturers on the back of favourable commodity prices.
WPI in February eased to 3.85% year-on-year, compared with 4.73% in the previous month.
It was below the Reuters forecast of 4%, and also marked the lowest since January 2021, when it recorded 2.51%.
In February food index rose 2.76% year-on-year, from 2.95% in January, while fuel and power rose 14.82% from 15.15%.
Decline in the rate of inflation was broad based primarily driven by fall in prices of crude, energy prices, non-food and food articles, the government said in the statement.
Data released on Monday showed India’s annual retail inflation eased to 6.44% in February, helped by a fall in the price of some food items.
However, concerns about price pressures remain as retail inflation was above central bank’s upper tolerance of 6% for the second consecutive month, with core inflation remaining sticky.
(Reporting by Aftab Ahmed amd Shivangi Acharya; Editing by Kim Coghill & Shri Navaratnam)
