Headline inflation hits 3-month high of 5.7 per cent in March

Wholesale prices-based inflation (WPI) accelerated to a three-month high of 5.70 per cent in March, driven up by increases in food and fuel costs.

Food prices rose 9.90 per cent year-on-year last month, faster than an annual rise of 8.12 per cent in February.

The rise in WPI compared with a 5.30 per cent jump forecast by economists in a Reuters poll.

In February, wholesale prices, long seen as India's main inflation measure, rose 4.68 per cent, their slowest pace in nine months.

Government data announced on Tuesday also revised the reading for January WPI inflation to 5.17 per cent from 5.05 per cent earlier.

(Reuters)