India’s wholesale inflation for August rose marginally to 11.39% from 11.16% in July, government data showed on Tuesday. Wholesale inflation had eased in the last two months.
The August figures marked the fifth consecutive month that the price rise indicator has remained in double digits.
“The high rate of inflation in August 2021 is primarily due to rise in prices of non-food articles, mineral oils crude petroleum and natural gas, manufactured products like basic metals, food products, textiles chemicals and chemical products,” the commerce and industry ministry said in a statement.
According to government data, wholesale inflation in prices of most food items contracted in August. However, the numbers rose for pulses, onion and milk. Overall, wholesale food inflation contracted by 1.29%.
However, inflation in crude oil and natural gas prices rose sharply by 40.03% during the month. Inflation for manufactured products stood at 11.39%, government data showed.
Meanwhile, the retail inflation for August eased to 5.30% from 5.59% in July, data released on Monday showed. Retail inflation has now declined for three consecutive months.
The Reserve Bank of India, which mainly takes retail inflation into account for making changes to its monetary policy, kept the key lending rates unchanged in August. However, the central bank had raised its inflation projection for the fiscal year 2021-’22 to 5.7% compared to 5.1% in the last announcement.
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