Inflation measured by the wholesale price index fell to 11.16% in July from 12.07% in June, data released by the government showed on Monday.
“The high rate of inflation in July 2021 is primarily due to low base effect and rise in prices of crude petroleum & natural gas; mineral oils; manufactured products like basic metals; food products; textiles; chemicals and chemical products etc as compared to the corresponding month of the previous year,” the Ministry of Commerce and Industry said.
The inflation remained within the double-digit range for July mainly due to a low base year. The wholesale price index, or WPI, had contracted to 0.25% in July 2020.
The month-on-month change in the wholesale price index, or WPI, for July when compared to June was 0.60%.
A 26.02% rate of inflation in July was reported against 32.83% in June in the fuel and power categories. In the manufactured products segment, which has the highest weightage of 64.2% in the index, the rate of inflation rose to 11.20% in July against 10.88% the previous month.
Prices of food articles fell to 0% in July from 3.09% in June. This is despite a 72.01% inflation in the prices of onions. The cost of fuel climbed to 40.28% in July as compared to 36.34% a month before that.
Separate data released by the government last week had shown that July’s retail inflation, which is an indicator of price rise, eased to 5.59% from 6.26% in June. The data was within the range of the Reserve Bank of India’s comfort zone of 2% to 6% target, economists said.
The inflation in retail food prices dropped to 3.96% in July as compared to June’s 5.15%. Food prices make up nearly half of the inflation basket.
The retail prices of fuel and light increased by 12.38% as compared to the same period in 2020. However, the retail fuel and light prices dropped on a monthly basis as the inflation in June was 12.68%.
Meanwhile, another set of data released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation showed that the industrial production rate for June rose by 13.6% from a year earlier. In June 2020, the industrial production rate had contracted 16.6%. The contraction was the result of a partial lockdown in the country imposed to rein in the coronavirus pandemic.
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