WPI inflation in May accelerates to 15.88 per cent on higher food prices

The wholesale based inflation surged to 15.88% in May as against 15.08% in April and 13.11% in the corresponding period of last fiscal. The number has remained in double digits for the fourteenth consecutive month.

The surge is mainly driven mainly by vegetable inflation which grew dramatically to 56.36% in May from 23.24% in April.

Another significant factor that contributed to the rise is the increased prices of mineral oils, crude petroleum & natural gas, food and non-food articles and chemical and chemical products.


Food inflation climbed to 10.89% in May from 8.88% in April, meanwhile, the inflation moderated slightly to 10.11% from 10.85% last month in the manufacturing goods segment.

The downward trend in the manufacturing segment is due to a decrease in the inflation rates of edible oil (from 15.05% to 11.41%) and basic metals (from 24.81% to 18.88%).

For the fuel and power segment, the WPI number jumped to 40.62% in May, from 38.66% in April, owing to an increase in the price of mineral oils. The prices of coal and electricity remained unchanged.

The number comes a day after the government published the CPI inflation which came down to 7.04% on the back of dropped fuel prices following duty cuts. However, the increased WPI number might put pressure on retail inflation.

The number comes a few days after the RBI revised India's inflation projection to 6.7% from the earlier estimate of 5.7% in the Monetary Policy Committee’s (MPC) June meeting based on the increase in commodity prices globally.