INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
WPI inflation in primary articles eased to 0.1% from 1.73% in the previous month.Wholesale inflation stood at 4.53 per cent in August,
government data showed on Friday
That marked the lowest level of price increase rate recorded since April this year
Softening of food prices, especially vegetables, led to easing in the overall WPI figure
Wholesale inflation or headline inflation is determined by the Wholesale Price Index (WPI), and takes into account the rate of increase in
in manufactured products, which includes items such as food/beverages, tobacco, chemicals and pharma, and has the maximum weightage of over
64 per cent on the WPI index, stood at 0.3 per cent, the Ministry of Statistics said in its press release.Inflation in 'fuel power' was at
17.73 per cent in August, the data showed
Soaring crude oil prices along with strong depreciation in the rupee in the past few months has inflated the import bill, leading to
Brent crude oil price is hovering at around $79 a barrel
a deflationary trend in food articles offset the double-digit inflation in 'fuel and power' basket in August.Food articles registered
deflation at 4.04 per cent in August 2018
Last month, deflation in this category was at 2.16 per cent
Deflation in vegetables was 20.18 per cent, as against 14.07 per cent in July.Noting that the WPI inflation data was largely in line with
forecasts, ICRA principal economist Aditi Nayar said: "As expected, the disinflation in food items worsened in August 2018, given the
unseasonably slack momentum in prices of various perishable items.""In the immediate term, continuing slack in food prices would weigh
against the surge in crude oil and retail fuels in the current month," she added."Going forward, the current depreciation bias of the rupee
could lead to further increase in core WPI, with imported inflation feeding into pricing power assisted by the closing of the output gap
We don't expect this print to have any material impact on the next monetary policy decision given that it is now benchmarked to the Consumer
Price Index (CPI)," said B Prasanna, group executive and head-global markets group, ICICI Bank.Separate data earlier this week showed
medium-term target of 4 per cent
of India (RBI) mainly tracks consumer inflation data while formulating the monetary policy.(With agency inputs)
