WPI inflation eases to 15.18% in Jun

The wholesale price-based inflation eased to 15.18 per cent in June on lower prices of manufactured and fuel items, even though food articles remained costly.

The Wholesale Price Index-based inflation was at a record high of 15.88 per cent last month and 12.07 per cent in June last year. The WPI inflation in June has bucked the three-month rising trend but remained in double-digit for the 15th consecutive month beginning April last year. Inflation in food articles in June was 14.39 per cent, as prices of vegetables, fruits and potato witnessed a sharp spike over the year-ago period.

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In May, the wholesale price inflation in food articles was 12.34 per cent. The rate of price rise in vegetables was 56.75 per cent, while in potato and fruits, it was 39.38 and 20.33 per cent, respectively. In the fuel and power basket, inflation was 40.38 per cent, while in manufactured products and oil seeds, it was 9.19 per cent and 2.74 per cent, respectively. Inflation in crude petroleum and natural gas was 77.29 per cent in June.

The RBI mainly looks at retail inflation to frame monetary policy. The next meeting of the RBI’s interest-setting monetary policy committee is on August 2-4. Retail inflation remained above the Reserve Bank’s comfort level for the sixth month in a row and was at 7.01 per cent in June. The RBI projected inflation to be at 7.5 per cent in the June quarter (Q1) and 7.4 per cent in the September quarter (Q2), before easing to 6.2 per cent in the December quarter (Q3) and further to 5.8 per cent in the March quarter (Q4) this fiscal.

To tame stubbornly high inflation, the RBI has hiked the key interest rate by 90 basis points in the last two months. The central bank also raised the inflation projection by 100 basis points to 6.7 per cent for 2022-23.