India's Wholesale Inflation Rises to 11.39% in September, Driven by Food, Manufacturing, and Energy Costs

India's wholesale inflation rose to 11.39% in September from 9.92% in August, with increases recorded across food, manufactured products, and fuel and power categories. Manufactured products inflation hit a series high of 9.76%. The rise follows retail inflation reaching a 23-month high of 5.54%, and the Reserve Bank of India raising its benchmark repo rate to 5.50%. Global supply disruptions and elevated crude oil and fertiliser costs have contributed to the inflationary environment.

Wholesale price growth in India climbed to 11.39 per cent last month from 9.92 per cent in August, with rising costs across food, manufactured goods, and energy pushing overall price pressures higher, according to figures published by the government on Wednesday. Across all three of its tracked categories, the Wholesale Price Index pointed to a broad uptick in inflation. Across the food category, inflation climbed to 8.66 per cent, a notable uptick from the 7.05 per cent posted the month before. Prices for manufactured goods climbed to 9.76 per cent — a record for the data series — after sitting at 8.37 per cent the previous month. Fuel and power costs pushed their annual rate to 25.85 per cent, up from 22.93 per cent the previous period. Petroleum products, food articles, crude petroleum and natural gas, and coal and lignite were each flagged by the Commerce and Industry Ministry as standing among the main drivers behind the uptick recorded in September. Plans were set out to retire the WPI and bring in a Producer Price Index as a replacement, with the changeover scheduled for 15 June. Upward price movement across basic metals, chemicals and chemical products, textiles, rubber and plastic goods, and electrical equipment fed through into the broader wholesale inflation figure. Wholesale price growth has trended upward through the financial year so far, driven in part by trade-route disruptions linked to the conflict in West Asia and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which a considerable share of India's crude oil passes. Rising costs for crude oil and fertilisers have worked their way through supply chains, lifting prices for food and other commodities and placing broader upward pressure on the wider economy. Government figures published earlier this week put the consumer price index at 5.54 per cent for September, a level not recorded in the previous 23 months, climbing from the 4.83 per cent reading logged in August. Food costs climbing at a notable pace were behind that uptick in the overall figure. A 25-basis-point lift brought India's central bank benchmark lending rate to 5.50 per cent, a move the Monetary Policy Committee finalised in the days prior.

India's Wholesale Inflation Rises to 11.39% in September, Driven by Food, Manufacturing, and Energy Costs

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India's Wholesale Inflation Rises to 11.39% in September, Driven by Food, Manufacturing, and Energy Costs

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