The country’s annual wholesale price inflation expanded in November to an eight-month high. The hike was driven by faster price rise of food and fuel products.
According to the government data that released on Thursday annual wholesale price inflation in November increased to 3.93 per cent from a year earlier, from a provisional 3.59 per cent rise in October.
Wholesale food prices in November rose 4.10 per cent year-on-year, compared with a 3.23 per cent rise a month earlier, the data showed.
Earlier this month, two macroeconomic data — consumer price index (CPI) inflation for November and Index of Industrial Production (IIP) of October — published by the government have put economists in a cautionary mode.
Costlier food items — especially vegetables, eggs and fruits — and fuel in November drove up CPI inflation by 1.30 percentage points to 4.88% from 3.58% in October. It shot by 1.25 percentage points from a year earlier, when it was 3.63%.
The retail inflation numbers published by Central Statistics Office (CSO) of ministry of statistics and programme implementation on Tuesday showed that the whopping jump in the retail inflation last month was mostly due to vegetable prices soaring 22.48% with prices of tomatoes and onion shooting through the roof.
Other food items, whose prices climbed over 7% in November were eggs (7.95%) and sugar and confectionary (7.80%). The overall consumer foods price index (CFPI) last month rose 4.42%, up from 1.9% in October.