WPI inflation hikes to 1.84% in Sep as food prices spike

The wholesale price inflation rose to 1.84% in September as food items, especially vegetables, turned costlier, as per the government data released on Monday.

The wholesale price index (WPI)-based inflation was 1.31% in August. It was (-)0.07% in September last year.

Inflation in food items shot up to 11.53% last month against 3.11% in August. This was led by 48.73% inflation in vegetables as against (-)10.01% in August.

Inflation in potato and onion continued to be high at 78.13% and 78.82%, respectively in September.

Fuel and power category witnessed deflation of 4.05% in September against a deflation of 0.67% in August.

"Positive rate of inflation in September 2024 is primarily due to increase in prices of food articles, food products, other manufacturing, manufacture of motor vehicles, trailers & semi-trailers, manufacture of machinery & equipment, etc," the commerce and industry ministry said in a statement.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which mainly takes into account retail inflation while framing monetary policy, kept benchmark interest rate or repo rate unchanged at 6.5% in its monetary policy review earlier this month.

Retail inflation numbers will be released later in the day.