Higher prices of food items along with those of primary articles accelerated India's annual rate of inflation based on wholesale prices to 2.59 per cent in December from 0.58 per cent in November, official data showed on Tuesday.

However, on a year-on-year (YoY) basis, the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) data furnished by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry showed a decelerating trend during December 2019, as inflation had risen to 3.46 per cent during the corresponding period of 2018.

"Build up inflation rate in the financial year so far was 2.42 per cent compared to a build up rate of 2.92 per cent in the corresponding period of the previous year," the ministry said in its review of 'Index Numbers of Wholesale Price in India' for December.

On a sequential basis, the expenses on primary articles, which constitute 22.62 per cent of the WPI's total weightage, increased to 11.46 per cent from 7.68 per cent.

Furthermore, the prices of food items increased at a faster rate of 13.24 per cent from 11.08 per cent.

The key macro economic inflation data comes a day after Consumer Price Index (CPI) for December showed an accelerating trend. It touched a 65-month high at 7.35 per cent from 5.54 per cent in November.