Wholesale Price-based Inflation (WPI) for March 2023 declined to a 29-month low of 1.34 percent. WPI inflation stood at 3.85 percent in February and at 4.80 percent in January this year. The fall in the rate of inflation in the month of March is primarily contributed by the decline in prices of crude petroleum and natural gas, basic metals, food products, textiles, non-food articles, minerals, rubber and plastic products, and paper products. This is the 10th straight month of decline in WPI-based inflation.
Fuel and power basket inflation eased to 8.96 percent last month from 14.82 percent in February.
The food index inflation fell to 2.32 percent in March from 2.76 percent in February. For the primary articles segment, the inflation rate cooled to 2.40 percent in March against 3.28 percent recorded in the preceding month.
The deceleration in WPI is in line with the decline of retail inflation in March.
Retail inflation, based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI), fell to a 15-month low of 5.66 percent in March, due to ease in the food and fuel baskets.
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