Wholesale inflation jumps to 7.4% in March 2021

Wholesale inflation in March 2021 jumped to eight-year high of 7.4%. Such high level of WPI was last witnessed in October 2012, when inflation was 7.4%.

Wholesale inflation in primary articles (weightage of 22.62% in the WPI basket) has risen to 6.4% in March 2021 compared with 2.2% in March 2020.

Wholesale inflation in the food group rose by 3.3% in March 2021 compared with 1.4% in February 2021 and 4.6% in the corresponding month last year on account of higher prices of pulses (13%) and fruits (16%).

Inflation in fuel and power (weightage of 13.15% in the WPI basket) increased to 10.3% in March 2021 compared with subdued inflation of 0.6% in February 2021 and deflation of 2.9% in March 2020.

The inflation in the manufactured products (weightage of 64.23% in the WPI basket) scaled a record high of 7.3% in March 2021 compared with 5.8% in the previous month and 0.3% in the corresponding month last year. Story : Shivani SharmaDesign: Pragati Srivastava