New Delhi: Wholesale inflation eased to 3.07 pc in April on cheaper fuel and manufactured items, even as prices of food articles remained high, official data released Tuesday showed. The Wholesale Price Index-based inflation was at 3.18 pc in March and 2.93 pc in February. It was 3.62 pc in April 2018.
Inflation in the ‘food articles’ basket hardened to 7.37 pc during April 2019 as against 5.68 pc in March, as prices of vegetables skyrocketed. Food inflation has been on the rise for the last five months since December 2018 when it was (-) 0.42 pc.
Vegetables inflation too has seen a steep rise since December 2018 when it was (-)19.29 pc. It stood at 40.65 pc in April, up from 28.13 pc in the previous month. Amongst food items, inflation in potato cooled to (-)17.15 pc. In case of onion and fruits, it stood at (-)3.43 pc and (-)6.88 pc, respectively, in April.
However, inflation in the ‘fuel and power’ category cooled to 3.84 pc, from 5.41 pc in March. Inflation in diesel halved to 3.24 pc during the month from 7.33 pc in March. For petrol, inflation was 1.74 pc in April, as against 1.78 pc in the previous month. However, inflation in LPG spiked to 11.48 pc in April, from 0.94 pc last month.
