The wholesale price-based inflation rose to 13.11% in February, government data showed on Monday. In January, the wholesale inflation was 12.96%. The indicator of price rise in wholesale markets has remained in double digits since April, according to PTI.
“The high rate of inflation in February 2022, is primarily due to rise in prices of mineral oils, basic metals, chemicals and chemical products, crude petroleum and natural gas, food articles and non-food articles as compared to the corresponding month of the previous year,” the commerce and industry ministry said.
Wholesale inflation in food articles decreased from 10.33% in January to 8.19% in February. However, inflation in crude petroleum surged to 55.17% during February from 39.41% in January.
The rise in wholesale prices may have been triggered by geo-political reasons, Aditi Nayar, chief economist at ratings agency ICRA, said.
“We expect the WPI inflation to print at a high 13-14% in March 2020,” Nayar was quoted as saying by BloombergQuint.
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