India's Wholesale Inflation Eases To 3.85% In February

India's wholesale price index (WPI) based inflation eased to 3.85 per cent in February against 4.73 per cent in January 2023, as per the data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry on Tuesday.

The ministry stated this is due to the fall in prices of crude petroleum and natural gas, non-food articles, food products, minerals, computers, electronic, chemical products, electrical equipment and motor vehicles, etc. 

The ministry also added that the prices of food articles (0.45 per cent) increased in February as compared to January. Prices of minerals (-1.37 per cent), non-food articles (-1.73 per cent) and crude petroleum and natural Gas (-5.42 per cent) declined in February.

"The food index consisting of 'food articles' from the primary articles group and 'food product' from the manufactured products group has increased from 171.2 in January to 171.3 in February," the ministry stated.

The rate of inflation based on the WPI Food Index decreased from 2.95 per cent in January to 2.76 per cent in February, it added.

Meanwhile, India's Consumer Price Index (CPI) or retail inflation eased to 6.44 per cent in February but continued to exceed the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) tolerance level for the second consecutive month, said the data released by the Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation (MoSPI) on Monday.

For the second month in a row, the CPI inflation rate exceeded the RBI's tolerance range of 2 to 6 per cent. Retail inflation reached a three-month high of 6.52 per cent in January.

The CPI inflation rate in India was 5.72 per cent in December and 5.88 per cent in November.