India's WPI inflation at 4-month high of 14.55% in March

“The high rate of inflation in March 2022 is primarily due to rise in prices of crude petroleum and natural gas, mineral oils, basic metals, etc owing to disruption in global supply chain caused by Russia-Ukraine conflict,” the Office of the Economic Adviser, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), under the ministry of commerce and industry, said.

The official WPI for all commodities (Base: 2011-12 = 100) for the month of March 2022 increased to 148.8 from previous month’s 144.9.

The index for manufactured products (weight 64.23 per cent) for March 2022 increased to 141.6 from 138.4 for the month of February 2022. The index for ‘Manufacture of Textiles’ sub-group increased to 143.5 from previous month’s 142.40, while the index for ‘Manufacture of Wearing Apparel’ remained unchanged from the previous month at 145.20.

The index for primary articles (weight 22.62 per cent) also rose to 170.30 in March 2022 from previous month’s 166.80. On the other hand, the index for fuel and power (weight 13.15 per cent) increased to 146.9 from 139.0 in February 2022.

Meanwhile, the all-India inflation rate for consumer price index (CPI) on base 2012=100 stood at 6.95 (provisional) in March 2022 compared to 6.07 (final) in February 2022 and 5.52 in March 2021, according to the National Statistics Office, under the ministry of statistics and programme implementation.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (RKS)