The wholesale price-based inflation shot up to an all-time high of 10.49 percent in April, on rising prices of crude oil and manufactured items.
Also, a low base of April last year contributed to the spike in inflation in April 2021.
Significantly, this is the highest rate of WPI inflation in the last 6-months. The monthly rate of inflation, based on month over month movement of WPI index, in April 2021 stood at 1.86 percent as compared to March 2021.
The WPI inflation was 7.39 percent in March 2021, and (-) 1.57 percent in April 2020.
"In April, 2021 (over April, 2020), the annual rate of inflation (YoY), based on monthly WPI, stood at 10.49 percent.
"The annual rate of inflation in April 2021, is high primarily because of rise in prices of crude petroleum, mineral oils viz petrol, diesel etc, and manufactured products as compared to the corresponding month of the previous year," the Commerce and Industry Ministry said.
Inflation in food articles in April was 4.92 percent as prices of protein-rich items like egg, meat and fish hardened.
In vegetables, the rate of price rise was (-) 9.03 percent, against (-) 5.19 percent in the previous month. In the ''egg, meat and fish'' basket inflation was 10.88 percent in April.
Inflation in pulses was 10.74 percent in April, while in fruits it was 27.43 percent.
Inflation in the fuel and power basket was 20.94 percent in April, while in manufactured products it was 9.01 percent.
Retail inflation, measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), eased to 4.29 percent in April on decline in food prices, data released last week showed.
Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das had earlier this month said that manufacturing and services PMIs along with rising WPI inflation show a persistence of input price pressure.
Also, the build-up in input price pressures across sectors, driven in part by elevated global commodity prices, remains a concern.
"The inflation trajectory over the rest of the year will be shaped by the COVID-19 infections and the impact of localised containment measures on supply chains and logistics," Das had said.
(With inputs from PTI, IANS)
