Higher primary, manufactured goods' costs lift Aug wholesale inflation

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SME Times News Bureau | 14 Sep, 2021
Rise in the cost of primary articles, as well as prices of manufactured goods, pushed India's August 2021 wholesale inflation higher to 11.39 per cent.

The annual rate of inflation, based on wholesale prices, rose to 11.39 per cent last month from 11.16 per cent in July.

Similarly, on a year-on-year (YoY) basis, the Wholesale Price Index (WPI), as per data furnished by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, has risen exponentially over August 2020, when it stood at 0.41 per cent.

"The high rate of inflation in August 2021 is primarily due to rise in prices of non-food articles, mineral oils, crude petroleum and natural gas, 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 August.

"The month over month change in WPI index for the month of August 2021 (as compared to July 2021) was 1.04 per cent."

As per the data, the Primary Articles segment, which has one of the highest weightage in the WPI, increased by 1.56 per cent to 155.8 (provisional index reading) in August 2021 from 153.4 (provisional) in July 2021.

Besides, the segment of Fuel and Power, with a weightage of 13.15 per cent, rose by 1.49 per cent to 116 (provisional) in August 2021 from 114.3 (provisional) in July 2021.

Furthermore, Manufactured Products which has a weightage of 64.23 per cent increased by 0.76 per cent to 133 (provisional) in August 2021 from 132 (provisional) in July 2021.

Additionally, WPI food index consisting of Food Articles from Primary Articles group and Food Products from Manufactured Products group increased from 159.3 in July 2021 to 159.6 in August 2021.

However, the rate of inflation based on WPI Food Index decreased from 4.46 per cent in July, 2021 to 3.43 per cent in August, 2021.