India's Wholesale Price Inflation Sequentially Eases To 11.16% In July

The high rate of inflation in July 2021 is primarily due to low base effect and rise in prices of crude petroleum and natural gas, mineral oils, manufactured products

Easing prices of food products, primary articles sequentially decelerated India’s July 2021 wholesale inflation.

The annual rate of inflation, based on wholesale prices, was at 11.16 per cent last month from 12.07 per cent in June.

However, on a year-on-year (YoY) basis, the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) data furnished by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry has risen exponentially over July 2020, when it stood at (-) 0.25 per cent.

“The annual rate of inflation is 11.16 per cent (Provisional) for the month of July 2021 (over July 2020) as compared to ((-) 0.25 per cent) in July 2020. The high rate of inflation in July 2021 is primarily due to low base effect and rise in prices of crude petroleum and natural gas, mineral oils, manufactured products like basic metals, food products, textiles, chemicals and chemical products etc. as compared the corresponding month of the previous year,” the ministry said in its review of ‘Index Numbers of Wholesale Price in India’ for July.

On a sequential basis, the expenses on primary articles, which constitute 22.62 per cent of the WPI’s total weightage, increased at a slower rate of 5.72 per cent than 7.74 per cent in June 2021.

Similarly, the prices of food items rose on a slower rate at 4.46 per cent from 6.66 per cent reported for June.

On a YoY basis, the cost of the fuel and power category rose by 26.02 per cent against a rise of (-) 9.84 per cent YoY.