Wholesale inflation drops to three-month low of 1.89% in November as food prices decline

India’s Wholesale Price Index-based inflation eased to a three-month low of 1.89% in November, riding on reduced food prices, according to data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry on Monday.

The food price inflation decelerated to 8.9% in November from a 25-month high of 11.6% in October.

The Wholesale Price Index is a measure of inflation expressed by the changing prices of goods at the first instance of their bulk sale in India.

In October, the wholesale prices had reached 2.4% led by a spike in food prices from 9.5% in the previous month.

The Wholesale Price Index decrease in November was primarily driven by a 1.2% drop in primary articles and a 0.45% decline in the food index.

Vegetable inflation, which had risen to over 63% in October, fell by more than half in November to 28.6%. However, potato prices increased to an alarming 82.8%, up from a little over 78% recorded in the previous two months.

The rate of inflation for onion inflation, which had fallen by half from 78.8% in September to 39.25% in October, continued to fall further to 2.85%.

However, fuel and power prices increased by 1.2%, breaking a two-month streak of sequential declines, while manufactured products became 0.4% more expensive compared to October.

Data released last week revealed that retail inflation eased...

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