WPI up 5.13% in September as fuel prices continue to rise

New Delhi: The Wholesale Prices Index (WPI) in India grew 5.13 percent in September, driven by a rise in prices of fuel, noted the Commerce and Industry Ministry data.

The wholesale inflation, which is measured by the WPI, rose 4.53 percent in the month of August this year versus 2.60 percent in September 2017.

The prices of primary articles rose 2.97 percent, as against a fall of 0.15 percent in August.

The index for ‘Food Articles’ group declined by 0.2 percent to 144.5 (provisional) from 144.8 (provisional) for the previous month due to lower price of fish-marine (12%), egg and urad (3% each), gram and ragi (2% each) and fruits & vegetables and peas/chawali (1% each). However, the price of betel leaves (18%), tea and pork (4% each), beef & buffalo meat and bajra (3% each), fish-inland, condiments & spices, maize and poultry chicken (2% each) and arhar, barley, mutton, wheat, masur and moong (1% each) moved up.

Prices of fuel and power, which together have a weightage of 13.15 percent on the WPI, grew at 16.65 percent in September, as against a rise of 17.73 percent in August.

The index for ‘Crude Petroleum & Natural Gas’ group rose by 1.1 percent to 95.9 (provisional) from 94.9 (provisional) for the previous month due to higher price of natural gas (4%).

[source_without_link]ANI[/source_without_link]